Memoirs of a One Piece OC, Mountains of Gold Arc
by TenshiNoFuu
Summary: COMPLETE ONE PIECE FOCUS. The One Piece Universe has been deeply shambled by paradoxes since Ace was saved at Marine Ford by a girl who wasn't supposed to be there. Now the Mugiwaras land on an island where everyone is obsessed by some yellow metal...
1. Note

**_The story you are about to read is only part of a wider story called "Memoirs of an OC" and displayed in the genereal section under 'One Piece' fandom._**

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All the content of the chapters will be exactly the same, and for coherency reason, it is adviced to follow the story from its beginning at this link .net/s/6254959/1/Memoirs_of_an_OC_Outsider_Character

The reason it is also displayed here is only to make it known from a wider public highly interested in AU and crossovers scenarios. Nonetheless, each of the Quest the Mugiwaras will go through to resolve one of the paradoxes happening in their world is somehow an independent story, so you are welcome to read them individually. Please refer to "The Story up until Now" section below before the beginning of the real Arc.

Please Enjoy (^_^)

P.S: Reviews are welcome on this story AND on the main story!

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**Paradoxes Solved during the Main Storyline (in chronological order)**:

* ICE ARC: The Chronicles of Narnia

* GOLD ARC: Walt Disney, more especially Uncle Scrooge

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**The Story up until Now:**

* _STORY I._

Fuu is an ordinary girl from her world, fan of Shoujos mangas and regularly fighting with her brother Clow about it. One day, when she insults his heroes in front of him, he decides to send her have a little cruise on Grand Line with them. By living with them, Fuu realizes the Mugiwaras are far better than anything she could have imagined and sincerely befriends them. His objective reached, Clow brings back his sister in the real world.

_Environment_: Thousand Sunny

_Main Characters_: Mugiwaras

* _STORY II._

Several months after the previous story, Fuu lands once more on Grand Line, but on a wooden scaffold, right in the middle of Marine Ford War. Not understanding at all what her brother's whim is this time, she decides to save Ace and try to make everyone escape. She fails due to the huge amount of energy it was costing her to actually be inside the story and comes back to the real world in despair, completely destroyed to see what the outcome of the war has become.

_Environment_: Marine Ford

_Main Characters_: Ace & Luffy

* _STORY III._

Regretting the pain he has infilcted to his sister by playing with her and sending her in One Piece without thinking of the consequences, Clow decides to use all of his author resources to come back to the past, modify the original scenario of One Piece, and erase his sister's memory about it, forcing an alternative end to Marine Ford and suddenly duplicating the universe. The little conjuring trick works, but he and Fuu are now stuck into One Piece Universe, spatiotemporal and paradoxical distorsions occuring because of their presence. The first paradox solved is the one of the Little Robin, and Fuu regains her memories afterwards, realizing that it is now their responsibilities to look for all the discrepencies into One Piece Story in order to solve them (besides, it is also their only way out of this world).

_Environment_: Moby Dick

_Main Characters_: Little Robin, Ace & WhiteBeard's Pirates

* _STORY IV._

Upon exploring the new island upon which the Moby Dick and the Thousand Sunny have anchored at, the Mugiwaras accompanied by Ace, Fuu and Marco are invited to the Palace of the Queen. They soon discover that they have ended up in the middle of a secular fight for the throne of Fimbul, which Fuu discovered is only an adaptation of the world of Narnia which ended up blending with the One Piece Universe because of the paradoxes caused by her and her brother. With the help of Aslan and the WhiteBeard's Pirates, Queen Jadis is defeated and the Hundred Years Winter curse she had placed onto the island is lifted. Fuu also discovers that paradoxes can take the shape of Feathers of Light when appearing into One Piece world, and that such Feathers can only be revealed by her or her brother, since they are both Outsider Characters. She thus promise to do her best to collect all the Feathers so that they can go back home.

_Environment_: Fimbul, a Winter Island

_Main Characters_: Mugiwaras, Ace & some WhiteBeard's Pirates

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_This Story begins after Fuu and Ace were sent on the Thousand Sunny by WhiteBeard in order not to attract the Marine's attention (Cf. Story Transition)._


	2. Ch 1: The Conquest of the West

_What happens when an author of fan-fictions puts his sister in charge of solving the fictional paradoxes caused by the rewriting of the History of One Piece?_

**

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Original Happening Date: **May 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes: **Adventure, Romance  
**Pairings: **LuNa, ZoRo (long), AceXOC (even longer, kind of)  
**Number of Chapters: **10 + 1 SP **/ Words: **80000 (estimation)  
**Rating: **T  
**Warnings: **Post a re-written Marine Ford Arc  
**Credits:** All characters beside the two OC (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders across the world / All characters and songs from the crossover universe presented in this Arc are the property of Walt Disney / Lyrics of the song: "Cowboy Casanova" by Carrie Underwood, lyrics of "The World is not Enough" by Garbage, lyrics of "Cotton Eyed Joe" by Janne Ericsson.  
**Guest Star:** Clow, alias Clowsama (.net/u/1552380/Clowsama)

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**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

The Conquest of the West

…

**GRAND LINE, THOUSAND SUNNY**

"Land ho!" calmly called Robin from the lookout, before bringing back her eyes on her book.

"Wow! An island, a new island!" started to dance around Luffy and Chopper.

"A full continent, you mean…" specified Nami while looking at the wide land growing in size as they were nearing it, and which reminded her of Alabasta Kingdom.

It had now been more than a week since the Thousand Sunny was navigating on the tormented waters of the New World to reach their next destination – the one pointed out by the Log Pose attached to the wrist of their mikan-haired navigator.

And their two new crewmates – rather temporary crewmates – had found activities to occupy themselves on-board: Fuu had resumed her full-time post as an assistant –multiple assistant, even though the one really needing a bit of help were usually Chopper and Sanji, the latter having discovered that Ace was eating as much as Luffy, which was a serious threat for the food supplies – and Ace had mainly been helping Nami for navigation, as the experienced and good – if not excellent comparing to the rest of the Mugiwaras – navigator he was.

Along the way, they had met a couple of pirate ships – the majority of them having run away at realizing their Jolly Roger was the one of the crazy pirate captain who had messed up three of the World Government Institutions in less than a year – Marine patrols – who had tried to attack them after realising the same thing, but quite fruitlessly – and Sea Monsters – which had unfortunately for them ended up in Sanji's food supplies.

Tempests had been numerous but no serious damage had had to be reported, and despite the relative calmness of the travel, everyone was now gladly anticipating the prospect of reaching land.

"I want to go and eat at a restaurant…" was already salivating Luffy.

"I need some new medicinal herbs…" was mentally listing Chopper – a big part of his supplies having been used along the trip to cure the frostbites Usopp had had while playing with Fuu's gun, the burn-marks Luffy had had while he had been so bored he had asked Sanji and Fuu to teach him cooking, etc, etc…

"I can finally find a dealer to exchange all the jewels from the Ice Palace, heehee…" was grinning Nami with Berry-shaped eyes.

"Yare yare…" was smiling Robin at all these comments which weren't really out of the ordinary upon reaching a new island.

"Sanji," called Fuu while turning her head towards the blond cook, "Will you need some help to buy all the food supplies?"

"It's really nice to offer, Fuu-chan, but I can't let a lovely damsel step down to carry the bags…" answered Sanji while dragging on his cigarette with a very gentleman-like smile.

"Oh, I see…" sighed Fuu in a forced smile to hide her deception.

_So basically, I have nothing useful to do… unless accompanying Chopper and Robin to the apothecary, I guess… I wonder if it's really okay for me to be doing tourism on Grand Line, like that…? Clow is going to scold me once more, huh… What did he said last time, something like 'having a nice little cruise with the heroes'...? Grr…_

_I had offered to join him and hunt paradoxes with him, but he said I should stay with Luffy and the others, just in case the Feathers would be attracted by them in order to make the Story resume its course by itself… Hum, that might also a smart plan, but still… Hum… Hum…_

Meanwhile, Ace was putting on a sand-coloured shirt while thinking about the last conversation he had had with Marco by Den-Den Mushi.

_This part of the New World is under the protection of Kaidou… _thought he with a glance for the Jolly Roger floating at the entrance of the port, _Ever since Marine Ford, relationships between Oyaji and him have been really tense… We even own Akagami a lot for keeping him busy during the War, so I guess it would be better to keep low profile here…_

_It's quite tacit between Yonkous not to make a mess on someone else's protectorate but there's also the problem of the rest of the Fleet being far behind us for now… And causing trouble while being a guest in another pirate crew is definitely not the most courteous nor the smartest thing to do, tsk… Maybe I should just take it easy for once and enjoy my stay on-land, hum…_

"If you're feeling bored, Fuu…" began he with a smile springing up on his lips at imagining how he could enjoy his time, "… we can go and have a walk in town together."

"Hum… sure, if you want…" absent-mindedly answered Fuu before turning her head towards Robin and Chopper, "Is it okay if Ace is coming with us too?"

CRASH. Ace had collapsed on the deck, completely stunned by the slowness with which Fuu was reacting to each of his tentative to get closer to her.

"Yare yare…" softly laughed Robin at the sight.

"I think you should try a more direct approach, Ace-san, if you wish to make some progress…" whispered Brook at WhiteBeard's Second Commander's ear.

Ace slowly turned his head towards the bony face who had spoken to him, blinked a couple of times without being able to mutter an answer, and finally heaved a deep desperate sigh while thinking he had probably reached the bottom if a perverted skeleton-musician was now in position to give him advice on girls…

_How come she can be so self-conscious when I'm close to her physically but not be able to understand when it's a verbal hint? _thought he while gazing at the hazelnut-haired girl.

The Thousand Sunny finally lashed down in the harbour of the new city. Nami started distributing everyone's shopping money and gave the time at which they would need to be back to the ship, and the volunteers prepared to disembark.

"Fuu, if you leave the Sunny, you should take your gun with you…" commented Zoro while barely opening up an eye – the swordsman being already ready for his nap against the mast, as usual when he was staying on-board to guard the ship.

"Oh, it's true!" exclaimed Fuu while slapping her forehead with the flat of her hand, while everyone else was sighing at thinking it wasn't really useful to have made her a weapon if she wasn't taking it with her.

And Fuu swiftly turned back to run towards the girls' cabin where she had left the silver weapon in question.

But she stopped abruptly mid-way, and gradually turned her head back towards Zoro, her lips tighten in a doubtful and embarrassed expression.

"Zo… Zoro…" mumbled she, "How do you know… that I do not have the pistol with me…?"

TILT. Zoro's eyes had snapped back open, and the three pirates waiting for their nakama slowly turned some suspicious faces towards the swordsman.

Fuu was still looking at him with a shared expression, and Zoro finally moaned a ranting blushing sigh.

"Well, I… Hum… I just noticed…" grumbled he while inwardly searching for an excuse other than confessing he had seen no holster on the girl's right thigh when the sea breeze had lifted her dress and swept across her white petticoats previously in the morning.

Fuu blushed furiously at the answer, having no trouble imagining what Zoro had eluded, and bit her inferior lips before turning back and dashing towards the girls' cabin without a word, but with beat-red cheeks.

And her cheeks were still red when she reappeared a few minutes later on, clinging her skirt to her legs with her both hands while passing in front of the swordsman.

The rest of the group then quietly disembarked, leaving Zoro swallowing back his embarrassment and beginning his nap.

_Grr… This damned Shounen manga characters! In the end, this ship is filled with playboys and perverts: no one to make up for the other… _was thinking Fuu upon entering the new city with Robin, Chopper and Ace, _There's only Luffy and Chopper who are not depraved… though since Luffy is now dating Nami and that their relationship seems to progress normally, I must conclude that he isn't as innocent as he looks… Grr, give me back the gentlemen from my Shoujo mangas!_

And Fuu's inner rant came to a stop when they finally arrived downtown, trying to find words to describe the scenery in front of their eyes.

"It looks like Banaro Island…" screeched Ace with an annoyed expression at the remembrance of his fight against BlackBeard on the aforementioned island.

"Wow, so many people… and they all look so busy!" added Chopper while watching the carts and passer-bys cross the large main street – or rather the only street – at full speed, creating clouds of dry dust in their stake.

"It must be a mining region with this city as an anchoring point for prospectors…" commented Robin with a glance for the men crossing the street at horseback or by feet, their face covered in dirt and pickaxes on their shoulders.

_It definitely looks like one of these boomtowns which were popping up like mushrooms in the American Far West during the 19__th__ century… but I can't really say that, can I? _thought Fuu while watching the flat fronts of the wooden houses bordering the unique street, the pub with swing doors which was labeled 'Saloon', and the horse-riders wearing cowboy's hats and large leather belts showing off two to four revolvers.

Far away beyond the exit of the town was spreading the endless space of a rocky – dusty – desert until the eyes could catch glimpse of a range of bare mountains on the horizon.

_Looks like my new weapon is quite adapted to the local atmosphere! _inwardly laughed Fuu while trying not to attribute this coincidence to the irremediable Laws of Fiction-Telling which wanted that nothing would happen without reason, _Though Ace's hat and Zoro's dark glares could pretty much blend with the ambiance, Spaghetti-Western-movies speaking, heehee…_

But the time granted for admiring the scenery soon reached its end and Robin was the first one to come back to business.

"Isha-san, you said you needed medical supplies, didn't you?" asked the archaeologist while lowering her eyes towards the little reindeer who had transformed into his animal form to be more discreet, "The apothecary shop seems to be on this side."

"Yes…" nodded Chopper, "I need several herbs and lots of bandages…"

"Hum… I'm not sure we need three people to bring the bags back to the Sunny… The two of us should be enough…" pursued Robin with an insisting glance for Ace and Fuu and one of her usual little calculating smiles at thinking she was going to lend a friendly hand to WhiteBeard's Second Commander, "So meanwhile, Ace-san, Fuu, how about going to the pub and try and find out some information to see if there might be something interesting to do on this island before leaving?"

"Huh…? Oh, hum, sure…" accepted Fuu, a bit surprised that her nakamas would want to go different ways but glad to be able to do something useful for once.

And on this answer, Robin and Chopper left towards the apothecary shop, the archaeologist having granted Ace an encouraging glance to which he had answered a thankful smile.

"So, we should get going too!" exclaimed he with a joyful smile at grabbing Fuu's left hand in his to pull her behind him across the crowd.

"A… Ace…?" blushed a bit Fuu while fruitlessly trying to get her hand back, "Where… where are we going? What's the plan?"

"Hum…?" turned back Ace with a grin, "To the Saloon to collect information of course! The best way is just to wait discreetly in some corner and let people talk: we should be able to learn a lot…"

"I… I see…" answered Fuu while trying to make her cheeks cool down and still fighting back to get her hand out of Ace's grip… but in vain.

And with Ace still holding her hand, they crossed the High Street, swiftly – at least Ace and therefore Fuu following as well as she could – dodging horses and carts, before finally pushing open the two revolving parts of the Saloon's door.

The wooden panels creaked a bit, attracting the attention of a couple of clients.

And these clients' faces instantly crumbled at recognizing – or rather wishing to be mistaken at recognizing – the newcomers.

Ace felt some fearful stares coming their way, gradually more numerous as the cowboys present in the room were elbowing their neighbours to show them who had entered the pub. His hand tighten a bit around Fuu's and he imperceptibly stepped forward a bit, drawing her closer to him as they were slowly walking towards the bar desk. But it wasn't useful for him to do so, as all the distrusting stares in the room were directed towards him, and him only.

"Hey… isn't that Hiken no Ace?" began a murmur.

"Hum, it definitely looks like him…" pursued another whisper.

When they had finally reached the bar, at the other end of the room, every client had by now realised who the tall guy with an orange hat might be and the whole room was rustling with undertone gossips about Ace, and rather the badmouthing ones, based on the glimpses of conversation Fuu could catch.

The bartender himself was staring at them and more particularly at Ace as if to make him fully understand he wasn't welcome here, and Fuu could feel without any effort the condensed curiosity and suspicion emanating from the observers behind them.

_Seems like waiting in a corner while spying on conversations is not going to be possible… _thought she while raising her eyes towards the one on her left.

"We're taking a room…" said Ace in his calmest tone to the innkeeper before turning towards the stairs leading to the second floor.

_Eeehhhh? _blinked a couple of times Fuu while following – rather being dragged along by – Ace.

Downstairs, the innkeeper had even stopped wiping the glass he was cleaning due to the surprise provoked by such an announcement... And under the flabbergasted expressions of all the clients, the couple silently climbed up the stairs leading to the second floor and disappeared behind the door of the one of the rooms…

**

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ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR**

"Wh… Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?" cried with frustration Fuu, who had collapsed on the floor as soon as the door had closed, "Why did you take a room?"

"Hum?" tilted Ace, taken aback by the girl's reaction, "Well, to be able to spy on them while staying out of sight… We can do that from the corridor's balcony and…"

"How could you ask the innkeeper a room while it's barely early afternoon?" cried Fuu out of despair at remembering the comment she had heard the clients make when they were entering the room: _Young couples these days are so shameless…_

TILT. Ace seemed to suddenly understand the problem and he averted precipitately his eyes to try and hide a blush.

He then shot a glance at the girl with beat-red cheeks who was nearly crying on the floor because of the innuendo and massaged his neck with a troubled expression.

"I… well, I…" muttered he while kneeling down in front of her and trying to think about something to say, "It's just… you know… habits…"

_HABITS? _inwardly screamed Fuu while blushing even more furiously.

"You might be used to take rooms with girls in broad daylight…" began Fuu in an angry tone while nervously playing with the petticoats of her dress, "… but don't think everyone is like you, you damned playboy!"

SHIN. Ace blinked a couple of times at trying to integrate the last word in his mind.

_PLAYBOY? _inwardly exclaimed he, _Wait a minute, she really sees me like THAT? No, seriously? Just where could she have gotten that from? I mean, I can admit that I had only one night stands up until now, but honestly, for what I cared about it…!_

"W… wait…? So that's who you think I am?" asked Ace while inwardly considering that all the runaway and embarrassed reactions of Fuu might be explained by this reputation – not justified – of playboy she was crediting him with.

"Because you're not?" retorted Fuu with still a vexed expression, "An arrogant, provocative and overly confident playboy…?"

Ace took the shock in silence, strangely not really vexed but rather really curious. He stared deep into the angry amber eyes of his interlocutor and couldn't help but wish for answers.

"So, is that really what you think about me?" asked he with a very serious tone, while he was slowly bringing his face closer to Fuu's, his eyes pinned on hers.

"Hum… well, that is… you're also… hum… responsible, brave, polite…" tried Fuu, suddenly feeling guilty for having only listed him defaults the first time but not realising it wasn't for that reason that her interlocutor had insisted, "And, hum… you are… very strong, and… mature, and you… you smile a lot, too… hum, and you protect the people you care for… and… you… you…"

Fuu was feeling that she was starting to lose control over what she was saying under the influence of the obsidian eyes which were still staring deep into her own.

And Fuu started to imperceptibly move back, slowly, very slowly and still on the floor, as if hoping to escape the hypnotic spell which was paralyzing her.

_Waaaahhh… Why is he coming closer? Is he waiting for me to apologize? Is he just playing around once more? But… but his eyes seem to be expecting something… just what could he be waiting for?_ was thinking at full speed Fuu, her mind blanking out from times to others in the process.

_Hum… She really seems to be running away from me… _thought Ace with an amused yet disappointed glance for the girl with beat-red cheeks who was looking at him with obviously troubled eyes, _Does she really take me for a playboy? Tsk, I confess it's funny to tease her and it's also tru I grew addicted at her embarrassed reactions but… is she seriously considering I'm only PLAYING with her? She's not able to see the difference or something?_

_Well... I guess it's definitely like her, though... Now I'm really starting to wonder where she's coming from: such innocence is definitely not from this world! But more important, don't tell me she didn't take my kiss at Fimbul seriously because of that?_

And despite such disconcerting thoughts, Ace was chasing after Fuu just as slowly as she was pulling back from him, never leaving her amber eyes out of his sight.

And finally, the hazelnut-haired girl ended up back to the bed base, no way-out left.

"So, is it really all you think about me?" murmured Ace, his face now a mere centimetres away from Fuu's, his question making the girl blush furiously as she could feel his breath on her skin.

_WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!_

BONG. It was way more than what Fuu could withstand, and she had stood up precipitately, knocking involuntarily Ace in his chin with her knee in the process.

And still in a panicked state, she dashed towards the door and wanted to open it to leave the room, but a strong hand pinned on the wood prevented her from doing so.

"Hey, wait…" muttered Ace while massaging his chin, "We didn't learn anything special yet…"

_Grr… He's quite right… but… but… _thought Fuu while clenching her teeth to force herself to calm down and recover her cool.

_Since we managed to enter this Saloon in such an embarrassing way, let's try at least to learn something useful from the clients or the bar-tender... It was the very first time I was asked to do something meaningful when landing on a new island, so even if it's about collecting information, I can't go back empty-handed to the Sunny…_

"Sigh… So what did you say before? That we could use the fact we're the only ones using a room to spy on the conversations from the corridor's balcony…?" tried Fuu with a calmer and more composed tone.

"Yeah, that's the plan…" answered Ace with an amused smile at seeing that Fuu had recovered from her embarrassment and was now as calm as usual when glancing at the door.

_Interesting… _thought he at seeing the change of expression on the girl's face, _I'm starting to think that this playboy role she put me into is not as annoying as I had thought… Even if she runs away from me, she's not going really far away… and if I push her enough, she might even forget to run away, hum… I think I'm not going to get bored with her reacting like that, heehee…_

Then, having both aside their inner debates, Fuu and Ace softly half-opened the door of their bedroom and squatted down to discreetly listen to the conversations happening at the bar, right under them.

The clients of the Saloon had for long resumed their usual chatting, but the passing of the two pirates had of course brought a new topic to gossip about.

"Hey, landlord, d'you think they're pirates, this couple?"

"Hum… I've some doubts, now…"

"But the guy looks just like Hiken no Ace from the WhiteBeard's Fleet…"

"Haha… maybe but who cares? Right now, I'm sure these two must be having a really good time!"

"Yeah… Hey Landlord! Be careful that the vibrations won't damage your Saloon … Knowing how strong this guy is, I doubt he'll do her something soft…"

"Well, the girl should know what she's up to! So I'm sure she's just the type who won't be content with something soft, despite how she looks, yahahaha!"

CRASH. At hearing the comment of the cowboys, Fuu had become bright scarlet and had glided on the floor, completely annihilated with self-consciousness.

_No but what type of reputation will I end up having in this town? Ouinnnnnnnn! _thought she while instinctively tightening her grip on the door frame to gain some support.

"Fuu…" softly murmured Ace at her ear.

"Kyaaa…" startled Fuu while repressing a squeal, before briskly turning her flushed face towards Ace and whisper back: "Wh… what?"

"Sorry…" murmured he while averting his eyes to hide a blush caused by the same comments, "I didn't think about it when asking for the room… So sorry about that…"

Fuu looked at Ace's embarrassed expression and fought back a laugh at seeing him apparently ashamed to confess he hadn't thought about it beforehand.

"Well… it's done already, so it's fine…" murmured she with an amused smile while trying to meet with his eyes to comfort him.

And in front of such an expression, Ace smiled back, until the sound of the conversation resuming under them pulled back their focus on the room underneath.

"But it's true I wouldn't be surprised if other pirates fleets were coming here, at El Dorado…"

_This island… well, continent-island is called El Dorado? The same name as the ancient mythical City of Gold? Weird… Oda-Sensei is not the type to lack imagination when coming up with the name of the Islands in One Piece… well, at least according to my brother… Hum, maybe admiration makes him biased on the topic… Hum, El Dorado, so… something related to gold?_

"Yeah, it's true that with the mine, treasure hunters have come from everywhere…"

"But pirates are another story! They wouldn't just dig the mountains or sift the river, they would rob the other miners of their gold!"

_So we're really talking about gold? Great, that's a very precious information! And Nami is going to faint with happiness, I'm sure…_

"Gold, hum?" whispered Ace while crooking a smile, "Our money-loving navigator is definitely going to like this island! Hum… and that also means we won't be leaving soon… or at least, not empty-handed, heehee…"

And while Fuu was repressing a laugh at the same idea, the conversation under them was pursuing its course.

"It's already enough to have to pay for Kaidou's protection, we can't just let random pirates have it their way with our gold!"

"Don't worry too much! I'm sure the Sheriff will do something if robbers make a mess! After all, he's got a very powerful power too…"

"Tsk, if it's pirates like this couple from before, I'm not sure the Sheriff's power would be efficient… You all saw it: they're really shameless! Asking for a room during the day, and in front of everyone…!"

_…! _nearly choked on Fuu, _How… how embarrassing, sob sob...! Our reputation is definitely ruined, now... I hope we won't have to stay on-land for long or I'll definitely die of shame before the end! And… wait a second… what's the link between us being shameless or not and the Sheriff?_

"Humph… Even people like that have something embarrassing to hide in their heart… Just trust the Sheriff!"

"Tsk… I'll never trust anyone besides myself! I'll protect my gold alone, as always! And built my fortune with hard-work and efforts and never let myself be fooled. That's the oath I made on my Number One Dime!"

_Hey?_

Completely flabbergasted by the last sentence she had heard, Fuu slowly progressed towards the wooden balcony and looked though the bars of the balustrade that was running along the corridor bordering the bedrooms, just above the bar.

_No way… the one who said THAT…_

Fuu slowly lowered her eyes on the bar desk and nearly gasped of stupor at seeing an anthropomorphic duck sitting at it and conversing with the innkeeper… a duck only drinking a glass of water and helping himself in the pot of peanuts left for free consumption on the bar, without ordering anything else… a duck who had left his heavy dusty coat with a huge bag and pickaxe on the chair nearby… a duck wearing a patched up reddish frock coat, some sideburns already easy to distinguish on the side of his head…

_TELL ME I'M DAY-DREAMING…?_

**

* * *

MEANWHILE, IN FRONT OF THE EXCHANGE SHOP**

"Okay, Luffy! Have you understood what I just explained you?" asked Nami while turning her head towards her captain, a very serious expression on her face.

"Yeah!" nodded diligently Luffy.

"Are you sure you've perfectly understood your role?" confirmed Nami with a calculating expression.

"Yeah: I do like usual and let myself be swindled, right?" repeated Luffy while finally remembering what Nami had told him the five previous times she had tried to explain him how to behave in front of the shop-keeper.

"Correct! You wait for the dealer to announce a really cheap price based on your face, and then when I chime in telling you he's scamming you, then you become angry and scare the dealer out of his senses by playing it the bad-ass-pirate-not-happy-to-have-been-taken-for-a-fool…" grinned Nami while tightening her fist with a passionate expression, "And then, I come right after you and we're making the dealer pay a lot more for the treasures! No way he would complain after having frightened him that much, heehee…".

"Okay!" nodded Luffy while breathing in with determination.

"So we're entering!" announced Nami while pushing the entrance door while Luffy was following her with the heavy bag containing the numerous – and heavy – jewels and gems they had collected at the Ice Palace at Fimbul.

**

* * *

SALOON'S BEDROOM**

_Impossible… Why? Why him…? Why here…? Could it be that we're really in the Far West? So the paradoxes caused by my brother and me also brought characters like him in this universe?_

Fuu was still gazing with an incredulous expression at the duck with a Scottish accent who was speaking with the bar-tender.

"Hahaha! We should have guessed: you always prefer to make your own way, haha ha! Your Number One Dime, hum?"

"But keeping a weird little silver coin as a lucky charm, it's really an old wives' thing, wahahaha!"

"Tsk! My Number One Dime is not a lucky charm, I only believe in hard-work! You'll see I'm right when I'll become the richest man around!"

_Oh, so he's not the 'the richest duck in the world yet'? _thought Fuu while polling her memory to try and find back some data on the duck in question among all her childhood readings.

"Wahahaha… yeah, sure, the riche… Hey? And what's this strange nugget tied to your coin, you didn't have it last time...?"

_A strange nugget? A gold nugget? t_hought Fuu while putting aside the searches in her memories to focus back on the conversation and more especially on the small stone which was tied to the duck's 'Number One Dime', _Hum… Definitely weird, it's true: the nugget is really round-shaped and a bit translucent, so it resembles a prism or a golden crystal more than gold…_

"Oh, that? It's some stuff a Native gave me when I rid him of some cowboy who wanted to rob him… Strafing thieves with lead is always a pleasure, niark niark…"

"We could have guessed, hahaha… So why did you attach it to your all so precious Number One Dime?"

"Hum… The Native told me it's a really powerful talisman in his tribe and that it holds special powers, so you never know… And I like the name: it's called 'Gold Core'…"

TILT. Fuu nearly choked at hearing the tale of the duck and her thoughts starting racing across her head: thoughts where were mixing an Ice Core transforming into a Feather of light when she had laid her fingers on it, and thoughts about how such Feathers were needed to close spatio-temporal slits between fictional universes.

"Fuu… What is it?" asked Ace at seeing the blood had left Fuu's face and that she was lost in her thoughts.

TILT. Ace's voice brought Fuu's back on earth and she tried to cool down before thinking about what she could answer him.

"Ace… You know that my brother is travelling the Seas to find some items, aren't you?" asked she while keeping an eye on the duck still sitting at the bar desk.

"Well, it's not really hard to guess, but you never spoke about it…" answered Ace with a smiling sigh.

TILT. The tone in Ace's voice made Fuu turn her head towards him, momentarily forgetting about the duck under them.

_Ace? _thought she with a tingling guilty feeling in her chest at realizing she had apparently caused him to worry even though she had decided to keep the whole problem about the Feathers and the paradoxes to herself precisely to avoid such concern from her nakamas, _I... see... Then, s__hould I… should I tell him…? Tsk, how stupid of me, what could I tell him? Between the strange 'I'm from another world and need these Feathers to come back home' and the 'You're just characters from a Japanese manga and this duck is from an American comics so he's not supposed to be here', I'm quite sure the Spoilers-related safeguarding slashes won't let me be it open my lips…_

"Sorry…" muttered Fuu with a fading guilty smile, "I can't explain you the details, nor to you nor to anyone else… But I think one of the items my brother and I are looking for is owned by this duck, and…"

TILT. But when Fuu's eyes wandered back on the bar desk under them, she gasped with angriness at realizing the aforementioned duck had left the Saloon while they were chatting.

"The duck?" repeated Ace while raising a curious eyebrow, "You mean the talking duck who was speaking with the innkeeper a bit before?"

_Hum, now that I think about it, what the heck can this duck be? Is he an Awaken Zoan or something…? _thought Ace while frowning a bit at the remembrance of the anthropomorphic animal.

"So what about this duck?" asked Ace with a curious expression while slowly standing up and closing the door between them and the rest of the saloon to resume a conversation louder than some whispers.

"Hum… It's not really the duck himself, it's a gem he has..." pursued Fuu while pushing away her frustration of having lost sight of it, "I'm not completely sure though, so I need to ask my brother about it, and also ask to everyone else if I can stay behind on this island to ascertain if it's really the item we're looking for…"

TILT. At the mention of 'stay behind', Ace's face closed down a bit but he quickly recovered to answer with a smile.

"Well, I'm sure there shouldn't be any objections, especially from our gold-loving navigator!" joked he while imagining there would be no trouble to find some occupation to the whole crew on this island, be it for money-lovers, adventure-lovers or just easy-going members, "Sure, it also depends on the time the Log Pose need to record the next magnetic field, but I'm certain we can manage to catch your duck before that!"

Fuu blinked a couple of times, surprised to hear Ace say what sounded like an offer to help her in her quest - especially since she had never asked for it or even hoped for it, having rather tried not to bother anyone else with this Feathers Quest.

But surprise let place for a more thankful and touched feeling and she couldn't help smiling in the end.

"So, since your duck left and that we have some 'precious' information to bring back to everyone…" began Ace while swiftly averting his eyes from the smilinh face of his interlocutor to get rid of the urge he just had of crushing her in his embrace for having made such an expression, "… we can go back to the ship, I guess!"

"Sure… Let's go!" smiled Fuu while putting her hand on the door's handle.

"Oy, you don't think about leaving this room by the main door, I hope…? It's way too soon!" cut Ace with a mocking smile while catching her hand to stop her from opening the panel.

"Huh?" wondered Fuu, a bit puzzled by the comments and more especially the 'soon' part.

"I care about my reputation as a man, you know…" pursued Ace with an _irritating_ teasing grin.

_Since she really thinks I'm a playboy, I'm not going to disappoint her… _ thought he with a cunning and provocative smile, _And if I have to be stuck in this role for now, I'm going to make it worth it! It seems way too amusing to let it slip… and who knows, she might even react for the best…_

"So there's no way I could let a girl walk out of the bedroom after such a short amount of time, and still perfectly in shape…" finished he with a very insisting ambiguous look for his interlocutor.

At understanding Ace's innuendo, Fuu's face became instantly vivid red and she bit her lips to try and keep her focus.

She didn't retort anything, way too embarrassed to even precise her thoughts and finally shook her head from side to side to try and clear her mind, under the jested watch of Ace who was inwardly enjoying her reaction.

_Waaaaaaahhh! No but how can he say something like that? As if it was the most natural topic of conversation in the world? Tsk, this damned playboy!_

_And also, don't tell me it means we'll need to wait in this bedroom until a 'reasonable' amount of time has passed according to our 'supposed' activity? Wa… waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! That's way too embarrassing, no way! Definitely no way!_

_And Ace fis just too much! Even if he confessed not having thought about it when asking for the room, it seems he's finding the present situation really amusing, grr..._

A bit angry at seeing the mocking expression of her interlocutor, Fuu started to look at the surroundings of the room with eagerness.

_No way I'm going to stay here with him, alone, while pretending to have such 'occupation' with him! An exit, an exit, I really need an exit...! Ah! Great, the window!_

And while Ace was amusingly looking at her slap her own cheeks to try and evacuate the red which had flushed in her face during her silent and embarrassing reflections, Fuu swiftly turned away from him and the door, and headed towards the large window in the opposing wall.

"Phew… We should be able to leave thought here…" sighed Fuu with relief at seeing the sash window was easily opening.

_She's the one who said it was already done and that we couldn't do anything more about it, but she's still panicking to try and find a less embarrassing way to leave… No but really… _thought Ace while gazing at the face of the girl he had seen go through a whole range of blushing tones in less than an hour, _Being with her, it's easy and interesting at the same time… I guess I'll just never get tired of it, heehee…_

"Ace, let's go!" joyfully called over Fuu, the breeze entering the room though the liberating window – and exit to her present predicament – having made her recover her smile and cleared up her mind.

"Are you sure you don't prefer to wait a bit more…" joked around Ace in a very provoking tone.

"S… stop that!" sulked Fuu, deeply embarrassed at the hint, "And, hum… well… when we… when we'll finally be outside, can you… can you please… not… not talk about what happened here to everyone?"

SHIN. Ace looked at the sulking puppy eyes his interlocutor was making, and needed to bit his inferior lips in order not to answer such an expression by a move that would definitely earn him a punch on his head.

He fought back such impulse a few more seconds, staring deep into the amber eyes which were earnestly yet innocently supplicating him, and finally couldn't hold it anymore and averted his eyes.

"Sure…" sighed he in a low tone.

Fuu smiled happily at his answer and put both hands on the windowsill to step over it...

... but stopped abruptly mid-way.

"Ahh!" exclaimed she while making a swift U-turn, "Wait! We can't leave like that!"

And before Ace could ask her what she was talking about, Fuu had already went past through him and gone back near the bed, looking left and right with eagerness.

"Have we forgotten something?" asked he with a puzzled tone.

Ace's remark made Fuu stop her steps and turn towards him.

"Of course!" answered she as if she was talking about the most obvious thing in the world, "After our little scene with the innkeeper and everything we've said before, we can't just leave like that!"

Ace blinked a couple of time, not understanding at all what the problem could be.

"Come on…" sulked a bit Fuu, "When the innkeeper will find that we're taking too much time to go back downstairs, he'll probably come to this room. And when he'll enter the room, what do you think he'll think about us if we just leave it like that?"

Ace looked at Fuu, then at the room, then at Fuu's serious expression again, and finally the pieces of the puzzle seemed to assemble.

TILT. Ace's lips stretched in a teasing grin and he walked determinedly towards the big wooden bed.

A few seconds later, the blanket had been sent flying to the other end of the rooms, the sheets were all crumpled up, a pillow had joined the blanket on the floor while the other one was nearly eviscerated of its feathers on the bed, and one of the four bed-feet was half broken after having been hit by one of Ace's soft kicks.

"All right! Now, let's go!" declared WhiteBeard's Second Commander with a self-satisfied smile.

He then shot a glance at Fuu, who was looking at him with a bewildered expression, extremely confused about what he had just done.

"Wh… why did you messed up the bed?" she finally ended up asking him.

"Hum? But you just mentioned it…" answered he while crooking an half-serious half-teasing smile, " … that when the innkeeper will enter the room, he will think that after an embrace as torrid as what one of ours must be, it's strange that the bed would still be intact?"

The suggestive comment caused a monumental blush on Fuu's face that soon transformed into a little cloud of vapour above her head, and such reaction made Ace inwardly laugh a lot.

"OF COURSE NOT!" exclaimed she, embarrassed as it should be allowed to feel, and briskly averting her eyes from the setting of the messed-up bed to try and get the innuendo out of her mind in the process, "I was just thinking… just thinking that…"

"Hum…? Thinking about what?" asked Ace in a very provocative tone while walking closer to her.

"I was thinking…" mumbled Fuu while determinedly not looking at him.

"Hum…?" repeated Ace who was now close enough to the hazelnut-haired girl to see how trembling with embarrassment her eyes were.

"That he would take us for people who left without paying…" finished Fuu in a murmur, deeply ill-at-ease, "We said we'll take a room… so even if we didn't use it, we need to pay for it…"

SHIN. Ace had frozen, completely taken aback by the comment.

"That's all I was thinking about…" mumbled Fuu while barely daring to shot a glance at her interlocutor.

And in front of such a candid expression, Ace had to fight back the urge of busting into laughter.

_So that's what she was talking about? Ha ha ha… No way… _thought he while turning around to hide his chuckling, _Paying for the room… Haha… There's only her to care about that! Thinking about the bill is already not something a pirate would do, but thinking about it while the only thing you want is get away of somewhere is just… just… Hahaha! No but what kind of education and life had she had up until now…? It's just too amazing, haha ha!_

And when Ace finally recovered enough of his cool to face her, he had planned to tell her it wasn't in his principles to pay, be it for a restaurant or an inn, and that running away without caring about the bill was the better way to deal with such situations, but he stopped midway.

_Oh crap… Don't tell me she's making such a sheepish expression just because of a bill? She not going to make a scene for it, right?_

Ace gazed at Fuu's puppy eyes a few more seconds and started to sulk at realizing he probably wouldn't be able to resist her for long…

"So… so can we…" began Fuu before she suddenly felt her feet leaving the floor, "Kyaaa!"

_Just NO WAY! _thought Ace while forcing himself not to listen to the part of him that couldn't stand to see the hazelnut-haired girl's puppy eyes and would be ready to do anything for her, _I still have some principles!_

"W… wait…!" panicked Fuu at feeling Ace lifting her up and put her on his shoulder before swiftly walking towards the window and jumping over the windowsill.

**

* * *

MEANWHILE, IN FRONT OF THE EXCHANGE SHOP**

"Great! Now that it's finished, can we go and eat?" asked Luffy while exiting the dealer's shop, his hands resting behind his head in a happy-go-lucky fashion.

"Are you kidding?" exclaimed Nami, trembling with excitement and her eyes randomly taking the shape of Berrys, "We've got something way more important to do!"

"Aah?" wondered Luffy with his mouth wide open in a rictus of disbelief at thinking nothing could be more important than food.

"We need to go back to the ship, meet up with the others and make all the preparations!" declared Nami while clenching her fists with determination and anticipation, her eyes still in Berry-mode.

"Preparations for what?" asked Luffy with his most not-convinced face, "Don't tell me you want to go in this mine the Ossan inside told us about…?"

"Of course we're going!" affirmed Nami with enthusiasm, "Didn't you hear what he said? A gold mine! And we have the right to keep everything we find!"

"But we don't care to have the right or not: we're pirates!" reminded Luffy with a definitely not enthusiastic expression, "And we just received a lot of money, so we don't care, right?"

"Tut tut…" retorted Nami while moving her index from left to right in negation, "If we earn more money, that means we'll be able to enjoy more wonderful food in restaurants…"

TILT. Luffy's face brightened.

"… with a lot of meat…" added Nami with a – fake – detached tone but eyeing Luffy's expression.

TILT. He had begun to drool a bit.

"… and this mine is a really interesting place, so I'm sure a great adventure is awaiting us there!" finished she with a cunning glance for her adventure-loving captain.

TILT. Luffy's eyes were now in star-shape.

"WE'RE GOING!" exclaimed he while throwing his arms towards the sky, now really really enthusiastic.

_Bingo! _thought Nami while snapping her fingers in victory, perfectly knowing how to stimulate Luffy's interest for something.

"So, are we going to meet up with everyone?" asked Nami with a bright smile.

"Of course! No way we're going to miss such an interesting adventure!" answered Luffy in a laugh.

**

* * *

HALF AN HOUR LATER, EL DORADO HIGH STREET**

"Ah, found two of them!" exclaimed Nami while waving at the two people she had seen across the street.

"Oh, Nami!" smiled Fuu while waving back at her friend across the heavy dust clouds provoked by the intense circulation in the High Street, "We're coming, one sec…"

But Fuu's eyes bumped out of their sockets at realizing Ace wasn't standing next to her anymore and had already crossed the street, skillfully dodging horses, carts and cohorts of prospectors.

_Sigh… He could have waited for me… I'm just a normal human, you know… I don't have phenomenal reflexes like him or Luffy… And then again, there isn't pedestrian crossing here!_

_Oh well, I'll just wait for a pause in the heavy traffic and… Huh?_

Fuu's attention was suddenly attracted by the person standing next to her on the border of the street – and that could have qualified as a sidewalk.

It was an old-looking granny with silver hair and a blue outfit that reminded Fuu of a plain Chinese kimono. The old lady was apparently talking with the little cricket she had trapped inside a small wooden cage, but the surrounding noise made Fuu miss the essence of the talk.

But what made Fuu's heart skip a beat is when she finally saw the granny put one hand on her eyes to blind herself and prepare to step right in the circulation.

"Stop!" shouted Fuu with a panicked expression while grabbing the granny's kimono sleeve and forcefully dragged her backwards.

"Huh?" wondered the old lady while moving apart the fingers obstructing her eyesight to search for the person who had pulled her back.

"What do you think you're doing?" exclaimed Fuu with a disbelieving expression.

"I want to prove this cricket's luck…" simply answered the granny with a confident smile.

"W… wh… what?" mumbled Fuu while blinking several times.

"My grand-daughter is making her introduction today and I want to give her something to bring her luck!" happily declared the old lady while agitating the little wooden cage containing the blue cricket.

_Aah? Is she senile or something? I had always thought older people to be wiser but this one is definitely an exception! And… but wait a second, why do I have such a strong impression of deja-vu?_

But Fuu's thoughts were abruptly brought to a stop when she saw two masculine silhouettes approaching her.

"Oh, what a pretty miss!" spoke a voice stinking with whiskey.

Fuu softly let go of the granny's arm and slowly turned around to face the two cowboys with definitely not friendly expressions that were standing next to her.

_Oh my… They reek of alcohol and it seems like they're going to be annoying… So, what do they want with me?_

Meanwhile, the granny had resumed talking to the cricket about proving its worth.

"Feeling lonely, pretty babe?" asked the second cowboy while looking around to be sure Fuu was indeed alone.

"How about having some fun with us, then…" added the first cowboy with a perverted expression which made Fuu's eyes narrow and harden.

_I hate being right about this kind of thing… Grr, they'd better leave while I'm still calm or I'll definitely make them regret their attitude… Especially since Clow would not chew me for beating up FIGURANTS!_

And while Fuu was hoping for the cowboys' own sake to leave her alone, the old granny with the cricket had once more put her hand on her eyes and had resolutely walked to cross the High Street.

"So, what do you say, sweetie…? How about coming with us?" asked the second cowboy while beginning to turn around Fuu.

"Yeah, we could teach you a lot of nice things…" commented the first cowboy with an excited expression while coming closer to Fuu and raising his hand to move it towards her hips and thighs.

And everyone next moves happened really quickly…

First, as the first passer-by at horseback noticed the old lady walking straight across his path, he pulled on the reins to make his horse stop before it would hit the granny.

At the very same time, on the sidewalk, the first cowboy move had earned him a dark glare from Fuu, but most of all had made an orange-cowboy-hat-wearing guy across the street light up vivid flames in his hand, while his two neighbours were frowning at realising what was happening to their hazelnut-haired nakama.

Second, the horses and carts slammed on the breaks to desperately try and avoid hitting the old lady who was still walking right in the middle of chaos with her eyes blinded.

And on the other side of the High Street, Ace chocked down a cursing word when the huge cloud of dust made him lose sight of his target.

Third, after a tumult of crashing noises and neighs, the old lady's silhouette started to appear out of the smoke screen. And when she finally opened her eyes again and contemplated the chaos she had 'luckily' escaped, she started rejoicing over the fact that the cricket must definitely be a lucky charm... though the 'lucky' cricket itself had already fainted with fear...

Meanwhile, on the other sidewalk, one silhouette also became more precise: the one of a girl wearing a white dress and straightening her skirt as if to take off the dirt from it… The 'dirt' in question lying flat on the ground or kneeling down in pain nearby her.

CLONG. Ace, Luffy and Nami's jaws unhooked in a significant noise at seeing Fuu perfectly fine while her two aggressors were now in some pitiful shape.

"She… she beat them up?" exclaimed them out of pure disbelief while mentally trying to associate a violent action to their pacifist nakama.

"Wait a minute! She doesn't even know how to fight…" blinked a couple time Luffy.

"Well, this cowboy over there definitely seems to have been kicked in his Kintama, though…" commented Nami with a shared expression.

"Ouch…" instinctively sympathized Luffy while clenching his teeth, "So Ace, is it that you managed to teach her how to fight, in the end?"

"Hum… no…" mumbled Ace, a bit taken aback by the question.

"Well, Sanji-kun did say she knew some basics for kicking, so maybe she's learned in the past… but it's just she's never really wanted to hit someone before, I guess…" paused Nami with an amused look for the two perverts on the floor, "You don't know how hard it is on women to have to deal with perverts, tsk…"

"Ah, hum… If you say so…" mumbled Ace, more and more ill-at-ease at the idea that if Fuu had no problem hitting him it might be because she was putting him in the same basket as the other jerks, "But on the Moby Dick, she was usually using her power on them…"

_At least she never used her power against me… _sighed he while feeling a tiny bit comforted by the thought.

"Whaaaaaattt?" shouted Luffy while briskly turning his head towards his brother and accusingly pointing at him with a shocked and horrified expression, "You let her use her power while she was on the Moby Dick?"

"What the…? Of course we did, tsk…! And just to remind you, she was also using it with you when she was helping you to reunite with all your nakamas!" snapped Ace, more touched by the remark than he had wished he would be, "It wouldn't have been very discreet to forbid her to use it while everyone else was seeing her land on the deck with her wings!"

"Who cares about being discreet?" sulked Luffy in a grumbling rant.

"Bakayaro!" shouted Ace while scolding his little brother a bit more, "And here I had thought you understood why Fuu's power needed to stay a secret!"

"But everyone would understand!" grumbled Luffy on a lecturing tone.

"You can say that because your crew is small!" retorted Ace, still very angry but keeping to himself what he was thinking about the level of 'eeriness' of the aforementioned crew members, "But can you just try and imagine how difficult it is to kill rumours inside a whole Fleet? What if someone let something slip at a tavern when they're drunk or something like that?"

"Who cares about what the others say! Fuu is more important!" ranted Luffy while staring at his brother with an expression of pure annoyance.

"Grr! You think I'm not feeling the same way…?" thundered Ace while trying to make his fists stop trembling, his face flushed with anger and something else, "But it's not that simple!"

"I can't see where it's complicated!" fought back Luffy while crossing his arms in front of him.

And while the two brothers were still debating on the topic, Nami had abandoned them behind and had swiftly crossed the street – skillfully dodging the pile of carts, horses and horse-riders which had ended up in the big messy traffic accident caused by the granny – to go and meet with her nakama.

On the sidewalk, Fuu was seemingly lost in thoughts, not even realising the pressing looks of the passer-by for the remnants of the two perverts on the ground.

_Seems like even if I'm not up to the level of the heroes, I can take on figurants just like in the real world, huh… Girls in mangas should use more often a kick between the legs to get rid of a jerk: it might not be the most noble way of fighting, but it's probably the most efficient… and it's also the very first basics we are taught in self-defence…_

_Tsk, perverts are the most dangerous type of villains: taking over the world is definitely harmless in comparison of a rude guy thinking he can just grope you as he wants, grr…_

"Fuu!" called Nami upon arriving next to her, "We're going!"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I'm coming!" answered Fuu in a smile before following Nami to meet up with Ace and Luffy.

**

* * *

EL DORADO'S HARBOUR, THOUSAND SUNNY**

Everyone had come back to the ship on time – and without getting lost since Zoro had been on watch on-board – and Nami had immediately rounded up everyone to present them the next stop of their journey.

"A gold mine?" asked Usopp while blinking with disbelief.

"Open to everyone?" asked Franky while raising a dubious eyebrow.

"If the dealer himself told you about it, Nami-san, it should be some trustworthy information, but it is still surprising…" commented Brook while caressing his bony chin.

"True, it's rather strange for them to let treasure hunters keep everything they find…" conceded Ace with a doubtful expression, "But we also heard some similar information…"

"Well, it might be to avoid plundering and thieves while giving people the opportunity to search by themselves rather than rob the gold from others… And well, it might also be good for the business in town to have so many prospectors…" suggested Fuu with a forced smile, trying to explain the logical reason behind Gold Rushes without mentioning how she knew such a thing.

_I can't really tell them that this kind of 'freedom' of discovery just happened in the Far West because the newly-born American government had no choice, can I? The endless lands of United States couldn't be enforced by laws at that time, so in such lawless deserts and towns, the most reasonable choice was to tell people to keep what they find for themselves and hope they'll be satisfied with it… Besides, the government was mainly hoping to populate the area with such prospectors and the activities around it, so it was more out of necessity that such things were happening… But off its original context, of course it seems weird, sigh…_

"A huge mine! A great adventure!" was exclaiming Luffy, grinning widely and sharing his joy with an already full-of-anticipation Chopper.

"Everything you'd like, my Nami-swan!" was automatically agreeing Sanji while twirling around his goddess-navigator with heart-shaped eyes.

_Hum… Well… Not that an historical or socio-political explanation could be of interest for them, I guess… _inwardly sighed Fuu in front of such a show.

"In any case, considering the number of days the Log Pose needs to record the next magnetic wavelength, I suppose we have more than enough time to go and explore these mines…" calmly commented Robin.

"What about the duck and the item you need to find?" asked Ace in low voice to Fuu.

"He's probably digging the mountains in search of some gold too…" answered Fuu with a smile at thinking it was a happy coincidence for her.

_After all, this dear Uncle – who's not an uncle yet but well… – is probably already back to his prospection camp, and with as much motivation than Nami presently… So that means I can stay with everyone while keeping an eye on this dear duck and the Gold Core… _inwardly rejoiced Fuu, truely happy not to be have to go a different way than her nakamas – not that she was unable to, on the contrary since she was used to travel alone in the real world, but ever since she had arrived in this world, something had started to change, imperceptibly, and even if her mind wasn't grasping it yet, her heart was feeling true happiness at the thought of staying with them.

"So let's prepare everything: we're leaving for the mines!" announced Nami with a very enthusiastic grin.

"YOSH!" joined in everyone else with more or less of enthusiasm.

And everyone dispersed to go and get ready.

**

* * *

A FEW MINUTES LATER**

Barely ten minutes after everyone had gone to make their preparations, Fuu walked out of the girls' cabin with an annoyed expression.

She had dug one of Robin's spare cowgirl hats on her head to get _in the mood – _like had said Robin – and had put on her shoulder her bundle bag of beige linen containing some spare clothes, a flask of water and some basic exploration tools she had nicknamed her _MacGyver kit_.

But what was making her rant as she was meeting up with the others on the deck was the conversation she had just had with her brother – by communication mirror – respecting to the duck and his Number One Dime.

_Tsk… How come he only said 'I put you in charge of solving the paradox'? Just who does he think he is, grr… As if I didn't know it needed to be solved… As if he could just 'put me in charge' while he's taking some holidays… No but really! He's letting me sweat it here in the Far West while he's enjoying some leisure time in Egypt? Grr, this damned annoying brother of an author!_

_As if it was an easy task… Tsk, even if he confirmed the Gold Core was the key to this paradox, I can't really see how I'm going to get it back! Because since our dear duck attached it to his Number One Dime, I doubt it will be easy for me to steal it… and besides, stealing is bad, despite everything Nami is saying… Hum… Or knowing how stingy this duck is, maybe I could manage to buy the Gold Core from him…? Well, but first, let's try and find him at the mine!_

"Fuu… You're ready already?" asked Ace with a smile at seeing her come to meet him near the railing, before sulking a bit at seeing that the hazelnut-haired girl had preferred to borrow the white hat of the archaeologist rather than asking him to take one of his.

"You too…" smiled back Fuu at seeing the green and black bag with zebra patterns on the wooden floor next to Ace's legs.

"Yeah… And I'm starting to believe that every time I'm travelling with Luffy, this Baka-Otouto is either making me cross a desert or some snowy mountains…" joked he while remembering their meeting at Alabasta and their first adventure together at Fimbul.

"Well… That's just how it is, I guess…" laughed Fuu at thinking her own brother had far weirdest destinations in stock for her trips, when he wanted to send her somewhere – in One Piece world, for instance, "Oh, and what about the others, are they ready too?"

And Fuu's head tilted a bit on the side to see her nakamas which were patiently waiting behind Ace near the railing.

Zoro had changed for some beige sleeveless tee-shirt and had put on a brown vest on top of it. He was leaning on the railing, his forearm resting on his katanas' hilts and a huge bag on which was written 'Camping Equipment' was ready at his feet.

Robin had also changed for a long-sleeved camel-coloured fringed dress – really short dress from Fuu's point of view but she could only agree that her friend was looking gorgeous in it – and had put on her usual dark cowgirl hat. A red belt and some camel-coloured laced boots were completing her look. Her bag was also ready and waiting at her feet and she had taken out a book to read – 'Gold Prospection for Dummies' – while waiting for the others.

Brook – who wasn't really in need of anything, even in a desert – had also put on some brown and beige outfit to change a bit from his usual black suit, and had exchanged his top-hat for a softer and wider one. And he was now patiently waiting for the rest of the crew to be ready.

And it was precisely this _rest_ which was having some problems…

_Hum… Well, I can understand for Chopper who needs to prepare his backpack as a First Aid Kit, because trying to imagine all the sorts of trouble and assorted wounds this bunch of hard-headed fools can get into is complicated… And I can understand for Sanji who needs to prepare enough food supply for Luffy AND Ace – and the others even if we eat way less than them – and also the Pirate Bentos since Luffy is always hungry between meals…_

_Bu honestly… what are the others doing?_

Indeed, the others were running all around the ship for their preparations…

Nami had changed too, and was now wearing a black tank top under a sandy-orange shirt topped by a grey sleeveless vest, an assorted sandy-orange pair of shorts and high-heeled leather boots. But she wasn't ready yet because she had spent the rest of her time running from the top deck to the hold to find and prepare more and more bags and buckets destined to transport all the gold she was planning on finding.

Usopp was crossing the deck from left to right too, and each time his arms were filled with more weapons and gadgets that he thought would maybe help him in surviving the dangerous journey in the desert.

Luffy was bugging Sanji in the kitchen, stealing some piece of meat the cook was putting in the Pirate Bentos as soon as the blond chef was looking the other way... and the cook was regularly kicking him out but the meat-thief was coming back to commit subsequent offences.

And Franky was currently not in sight but the rumbling metallic noises coming from under the deck were making everyone already ready wonder what could be his preparations, and more especially what type of equipment he was planning on taking with him to prospect in the mine.

_Wow… really… One-Piece-like, this bustle… _thought Fuu with a drop of sweat appearing on her temple at realising it didn't look rather different than in the manga.

"Hum… well, do you think we should go and help them?" finally proposed Fuu while turning her head towards the ready part of the crew.

"If we want to reach the mines before sunset, I think we should, indeed…" calmly stated Robin with one of her usual faint smiles.

"Tsk… This bunch of idiots…" grumbled Zoro while unfolding his arms to go and walk towards Usopp.

Ace had already opened the kitchen door to take care of Luffy, and Robin had nonchalantly made her duplicated hands appear near Nami to relieve her of her already-collected empty bags, and that without closing her book.

_Okay, then I'm going to help Chopper… _decided Fuu while running towards the infirmary.

And after one hour of more commotion, everyone was finally ready to leave and had disembarked.

The food supplies and equipment had been shared between everyone – even if Sanji had refused to let the ladies lift too heavy luggage – and Franky had switched on his safety device – one of his most recent updates on the Thousand Sunny and which had been designed to act as an alarm in order to protect the ship from thieves and other pest while no one was on-board.

Fuu had not dared to ask the blue-haired cyborg the fate awaiting a trespasser but Luffy, Chopper and Usopp were staring at the newly-protected Sunny with marvelling expressions and star-shaped eyes.

And everyone finally headed towards the town.

**

* * *

EL DORADO, EAST BORDER OF THE TOWN, RANCH**

"Heehee… I negotiated us some mounts!" joyfully exclaimed Nami while pointing with her thumb at the horses in her back.

_This poor rancher seems to have lost ten years of his life during the negotiation… _inwardly laughed Fuu at seeing the defeated expression of the cowboy which was going to be their guide to the mine.

"So let's go!" declared Nami with eager enthusiasm, her eyes in Berry-shape, "The gold is waiting for us!"

_She's getting carried away… definitely… _thought all the others while sweat-dropping.

But if Nami was really motivated to go to the mine, her mount seemed equally motivated not to let a stranger have it their way without a fight…

And everyone could therefore admire the mikan-haired navigator struggle with her horse for a good amount of time.

"Humph, this one, she wasn't able to wheedle it like she did for that stupid camel in Alabasta, heehee…" laughed Zoro at the sight, his arms crossed on his chest in a confident pose, before cautiously eyeing the rest of the mounts.

And Nami wasn't the only one having trouble with her horse:

"Gyaaa!" was screaming out of panic Usopp, tears of fear pouring down from his eyes while his horse was rearing to no end to try and throw its rider off.

Luffy was doing a bit better, since despite all the rodeo efforts of his mount to throw him off, he had used his elastic arms to circle twice the neck of the horse and stay easily in place.

On his side, Sanji had tried to be a knight in shining armour for his beloved ladies – that is, more than usual – but once he had finally manage to tame his own horse, he had had the disappointed surprise to see that Robin was already patiently waiting on her horse after having find a mount as calm as her, and that Nami's horse was now disciplined.

Franky and Brook had had lots of trouble too because the blue-haired cyborg had tried to dope their horses with some cola to make them more 'suuper-performance'-oriented, so both mounts had started to run away from them. But they had finally managed to sit on them – cross-legged for Brook since his legs were nearly touching ground.

"Sure, let's do that!" had smiled Ace when Chopper had asked if they could mount the same horse, since his plush-toy form didn't really deserve a horse only for him.

And since the little reindeer had already befriended one of the horses, Ace had had no trouble guiding it.

Also, joining the ranks of the ones who had had nearly no trouble taming their animal was Fuu: ever since she had seen the horses, glitters have appeared in her eyes and she had started grinning like an overjoyed child. And while everyone else had been busy with their own mounts, she had just got on hers with a swift and light jump, her feet instinctively finding the stirrups while she was happily patting the horse's neck.

_Wow… Hihihi… How long has it been since I last horse-ridded? It's such a pleasure to be able to do it again! And this horse seems swift and fast too! I wonder if it's a real mustang from the American Far West…? Hihihi! I'm so happy we disembarked on this island! Horse-riding is always such a pleasure, and…_

_Huh...?_

"Zoro… Are you not getting on?" asked Fuu while everyone else was too busy taming their own horses to notice the swordsman who still had both feet on the ground.

"No… I'll follow by feet, it's fine…" grumbled Zoro, his arms crossed in front of him in a shared expression.

Fuu graciously arched an eyebrow, quite surprised by the answer, and moved closer to Zoro with a small yet precise movement of the reins to bend over towards the swordsman and speak to him.

But at feeling the horse walk nearer, Zoro instantly stepped aside and averted his eyes.

Fuu's eyes widened a bit and she made her horse move towards him again: one step of the horse for her, minus one step for the swordsman.

Three steps for the horse, minus three for Zoro…

Fuu couldn't help but blink in disbelief at the sight.

"Zoro… Could it be that… you don't like horse-riding?" asked she in a surprised tone, "Didn't you already ride some of those, in Alabasta or somewhere else?"

"They were DUCKS!" pointed out Zoro without even looking in Fuu's – and her mount – direction.

"Then… can it be that the horse is the problem?" asked Fuu, a bit perplexed by his reaction.

"Wh… I… tsk!" mumbled Zoro while feeling his cheeks getting flushed a bit.

_Bingo! But why Zoro…? I mean, he's rather the type to scare his mount rather than getting all intimidated by it, so… Hum, I don't understand…_

Fuu looked at Zoro's sulking expression for a few seconds and finally decided it would be better not to ask further.

She then shot a glance around them: no one else seemed to have noticed the swordsman's hesitation – or rather his deliberate escape.

_Well, even if I don't understand…_

"Zoro, do you want to ride with me?" offered Fuu with an encouraging smile.

"Wh…?" nearly choked Zoro with a deeply embarrassed expression, "I'd rather die!"

"Well, I don't really know about dying…" began Fuu on the detached yet manipulative tone she was using on her little cousins when the children didn't want to do a chore, "… but if Sanji realizes that horses are your weak-point, he'll…"

SNAP. Fuu didn't even had time enough to finish her sentence: huge veins have appeared on Zoro's forehead and he had caught the saddle of Fuu's horse with both hands to pull himself up on the mount right behind the hazelnut-haired girl.

And while Fuu was patting once more the horse's neck to comfort it from the violent and heavy second passenger it had gained, Zoro crossed his arms back on his chest with a sulking expression.

"Tsk… It's fine, now?" ranted he while averting his eyes and clenching his teeth.

"Yes… probably…" giggled Fuu with an amused look for the person behind her, "But you should hold yourself too…"

_No way, hihihi… He really reacted like my little cousins! No but it's really too funny! How come he doesn't want to recognize he has some weak-points like everybody…? Well, let's try not to laugh… After all, I've been horse-riding since I was a child, but I'm definitely weaker than him for everything else so let's not act too mightily, hihihi…_

And while trying to hide her laughter, Fuu stretched her hand holding the reins on the right to go and meet up with the rest of her nakamas who had – apparently – finally tamed their own horses.

"Fuu…" called out a masculine voice on her left.

"Yes?" asked she in a smile while turning her head towards the person who had called her.

But she froze at seeing the frosty stare of her interlocutor.

Ace had approached on his horse – Chopper still in front of him – and was glaring at Zoro's hands which were put on Fuu's waist to keep his balance on their common mount.

"What's the big deal?" asked WhiteBeard's Second Commander with a dark tone, "Roronoa, you're afraid of horses or something like that? And you just freeloaded on someone else's mount?"

TILT. A vein had bumped on Zoro's temple and the swordsman's eyes narrowed, but he didn't unseal his lips to answer his interlocutor.

"Ah, hum… It's not like that, Ace…" retorted Fuu at feeling that Zoro had winced just behind her, and it wasn't hard to guess his pride had taken an heavy blow at the remark, "It's… it was I who asked Zoro to mount with me!"

_Oh my… Considering Zoro's ego, I'd better come up with an excuse… It was my idea after all… Let's see… an excuse, a pretext… Anything…_

"I… hum… I was a bit scared of mounting alone, it's true…" lied Fuu while averting her eyes and scratching her cheek to try and give herself some composure, "So I asked Zoro if he could ride the horse with me… and, hum, well… well…"

Wanting to prove the impact of her tale, Fuu slowly raised her eyes towards her interlocutor and froze once more at seeing that Ace's eyes had turned as dark and hard as steel and that he had clenched his fists around the reins of his own horse.

_Ace?_

"Oh... I see…" said he in a tone of outwardly calm but leaking with contained anger and disappointment, "And you couldn't have asked me, instead?"

DOKI. At this remark, Fuu's face crumbled.

_Ugh…! I… I… wh… why…? Why do I feel like I've done something bad? Wh… why is it that I feel bad for having let Zoro ride with me, suddenly? I… I… ugh…!_

And Fuu felt blood leaving her face under Ace's stare, guilt slowly eating her inside and preventing her from mumbling be it the beginning of an answer.

Ace stare at her with unwavering eyes for long seconds, clenched his teeth and finally made his horse make a U-turn to walk away from Fuu and Zoro and go and meet up with the others.

_W… WAIT! No, I… Wait, Ace, I… I… Ugh! Why is it that I feel the need to justify myself? It's just… But it's just I don't want him to turn his back like that… I…_

_Grr… That's only riding on the same horse, it's normal for nakamas, why does he seem so angry? And he also has Chopper ridding with him so what's the matter? And also… why is it that I feel so panicked…? I don't get it… it's… it's just…_

Powerless and troubled, Fuu glanced at Ace walking away from them.

After a few seconds of silence, she finally resigned herself at making her own mount walk towards the rest of the group and tried to ignore the distress calls from her heart.

Behind her, Zoro had found it appropriate not to speak, but it didn't mean he was agreeing with the present scene.

And far in front of them, Robin had met up with Ace and Chopper in a trot.

"I think you should rather trust your first impression respecting to the two riders behind us." murmured the archaeologist to Ace, having herself perfectly seen Fuu skilfully mount her horse before asking the swordsman if he wanted to ride with her.

"I know!" cut Ace, still really annoyed, "I know she did that to help him: I saw it too!"

SHIN. Robin paused and looked at him with a perplexed expression.

She then quickly glanced backwards and immediately noticed the depressed air of her hazelnut-haired nakama although she had been grinning like a happy-go-lucky fool several minutes before. And such a change of heart had obviously been caused by the scene with a certain WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

She thus stared at Ace with a wondering expression.

"Tsk… It's just…" began Ace, his face red with anger against himself at realising the stupidity of his reasons as he was exposing them, "She lied to me… to protect HIM! She lied and made herself appear as someone weak… to spare HIS pride… to spare HIM…"

And Ace's face crumbled a bit at feeling some strong bitter after-taste in his mouth for having let out his anger on Fuu as he had just done.

Robin looked at him without answering anything, her expression a mixture of amusement and moralistic disapprobation, and heaved a short sigh. She would have never imagined for the young man usually so serious – and patient – to act that petty, even if he was apparently regretting it.

_Yare yare… It seems like the saying about how jealousy is proportional to love might verify itself, in the end… _thought the archaeologist in a faint smile.

But she didn't add anything more and decided to let Ace face his pride to determine by himself what was more important for him.

"You know…" suddenly cut the soft voice of Chopper, who had kept quiet from the beginning, "I think that Fuu is someone nice because she helps her nakamas even if it's going to bring her trouble… And I think it's great to care more about the people important to you than about yourself…"

Chopper glanced back and made a long face at seeing that their hazelnut-haired nakama was still looking depressed far behind them.

"So if you're making her sad because of that… if you hurt her because of that, I'll never ever forgive you!" hammered Chopper while staring right into Ace's eyes.

SHIN. Ace and Robin just looked in silence at the plushy-yet-so-serious face of their little doctor, who was still staring at WhiteBeard's Second Commander with threatening – or supposedly threatening – eyes.

And while Robin couldn't help laughing up in her sleeve at the scene of their younger nakama lecturing the 'big-brother' one, Ace could only look at Chopper with a deluded smile…

"Hey, don't make fun of the reindeer!" ranted Chopper at seeing Ace look at him with an eerie smile.

"Sorry Chopper… it was about something different…" managed to articulate Ace who had actually been laughing at himself for having acted as a fool before and not having the guts to recognize it, although a small reindeer could so easily point out what was the most important, "And yeah, you're right: I'll probably never ever forgive myself either…"

And with a conniving smile for the little doctor, Ace made their mount make a swift U-turn and set off at a gallop towards Fuu and Zoro's horse.

In a laughing smile, Robin watched as sadness gradually left Fuu's face: in less than a minute, the hazelnut-haired girl had gone through surprise, blush, irritation, another blush, a sulking mood, and finally a laugh while trying to calm down Zoro who had him became really upset at what had probably been some joke or teasing comments from Ace.

"Yare yare…" sighed Robin at such a show.

And on this note of reconciliation, the crossing of the desert until the gold mine began, punctuated by the shouts of an already-hungry Luffy, the long stories of Usopp about the origins of the shape of some candelabra-cactus, the hyper-enthusiastic cheering of Nami in Berry-mode, and the unavoidable fights between Zoro and Sanji, especially after that the blond cook had realised that the swordsman was riding on the same horse as his beloved hazelnut-haired damsel.


	3. Ch 2: For a few Gold Nuggets more

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

For a few gold nuggets more

…

**EL DORADO, GOLD MINES**

"WE'RE THERE!" exclaimed Luffy while joyfully throwing his hands towards the sky.

The little group of pirates had indeed reached the mines, after several hours of travelling across the immense plain of dusty rocks of El Dorado. The calm of the desert had let place to the effervescence of the mines, the cactus to labyrinth-like galleries, and the scorpions and vultures to cohorts of hyper-active miners.

"The mines!" rejoiced Nami while joining both hands in an ecstatic expression, her eyes already in Berry-mode.

_She's getting carried away… most definitely…_ thought all the others while sweat-dropping at seeing their navigator staring avidly at the mine carts which were circulating on the rails leaving the galleries, searching amidst the tons of rock the golden glow of gold.

On her horse, another person was similarly enthusiastic, but not for the same reason.

_The mines! I'm sure my dear Duck must be here digging in one of these galleries! I need to find a way to find him… well, and also find a way to negotiate with him to get this Gold Core… _thought Fuu while searching around her to ascertain if her 'money-loving Uncle' was in sight, but with disappointing results.

And what finally attracted the pirates' attention was the gathering of miners and passer-by in front of what was designed as the 'Register Office' by a wonky wooden board.

They got off their horses and fetched their luggage before giving back the reins to their guide – who Nami had just paid for the ride, still trying to get a small discount even on the negotiated price. And while the cow-boy while turning hooves to go back to his ranch – promising himself never to begin negotiate with a mikan-haired girl ever again in his life – the group of pirates slowly approached the Register Office to see what was causing the commotion.

"Gotcha? You'd betta cooperate!" was sneering a huge blond cow-boy wearing a black and white leather vest on his broad shoulders, pinned on which one could see the glitter of a golden star labelled 'Sheriff', "I'm gonna make you confess, y'know…"

The Mugiwaras, Fuu and Ace gazed at the scene with dumbfounded expression: the Sheriff was towering over another cow-boy/miner who was on his knees on the floor.

_What's that…? _wondered Fuu while narrowing her eyes to look at the shadow of the Sheriff, which was spreading was more than what a natural shadow would, _It looks like… a spider web…? made of shadow…? What the…?_

"What's happening?" asked Nami to one of the bystanders.

"This guy stole the gold of another miner and tried to register it under his name!" explained the cow-boy questioned, answering with pleasure to such a pretty girl, "The Sheriff realized it and is now using his power to make him confess."

"Confess? With his power?" repeated Zoro while raising a suspicious eyebrow.

But the first cow-boy ignored the remark and glared at Zoro and the rest of the group, inwardly cursing that the pretty girl wasn't alone.

"Yes, the Sheriff has the power of a Devil Fruit!" answered another bystander who had heard the question and seemed eager to answer it, "But he's using it for preserving justice!"

Some in the group twitched at the mention of 'Justice', the concept not necessarily having been applied for the best in their case in the past, but nobody commented on it.

"A Devil Fruit, hum…" paused Sanji with a glance for the Sheriff who was still dominating the other cow-boy but without apparently doing anything, "What kind?"

"Well, we don't really know how it works, but the Sheriff has the power to force the truth out of criminals!" answered the miner, quite enthusiastic about his explanation, "His Devil Fruit is called the Kaa Kaa no Mi, from what we were told… And what you're seeing right now, these small shadowy threads under the thief, in town we nicknamed it the "Shame Spider Web". People who got trapped in it said that when you fall into this net, it's like you're being forced to remember all the things you would have prefer to forget: shameful things that made you want to disappear, regretful things that made you hate yourself, weaknesses you had tried to hide deep in your heart… Basically, you're getting paralyzed by dwelling in these feelings coming from your memories!"

"Humph… It's a bit like the power of that ghost girl from Thriller Bark but it's useless against someone like me!" boasted Usopp with a proud air before stopping his already-planned monologue on the bravery-of-the-great-Usopp-sama-against-the-ghosts at seeing the darker-than-black glare Zoro had sent him, having himself a couple more memories about such ghosts and about Perona, and not necessarily agreeable ones.

_Hum… I'm really starting to think I should have read this Thriller Bark Arc, but based on what Usopp had been telling us during his epic story-telling moments and what my brother had confirmed, it's true the power of this Sheriff resembles Perona's demoralizing hollows… Some sort of psychological attack… _thought Fuu while considering the thief on his knees on the floor, _Someone will really have to explain me why the huge classic of I-paralyze-my-enemies-by-making-them-have-nightmares-and-dwell-on-their-fears-and-tragic-past also have an equivalent in Devil Fruit? Well, I have to admit it's pretty original to see that here it's not a villain having such power, but still…_

"But if it's only about making them remember, how can he force the thief to confess?" asked Robin, really curious about the Sheriff's power.

"Ah, with his 'Bang Bang, Confess'!" eagerly answered the miner, his eyes filled with admiration.

SHIN. The whole group of pirates sweat-dropped at the name of the attack which was strongly resembling the name a 4-year-old could have invented.

"It's the Mayor's Son who came up with it, the first time the Sheriff used this technique in the town tribunal to make a bandit confess… and we got used to it, hahaha…" specified another miner in an amused smile at seeing the group of strangers react that way at the mention of the technique's name, "Don't get fooled by its name, that's quite a fearful power the Sheriff's 'Bullet of Truth'!"

"A bullet of… truth?" repeated Usopp, quite curious about this ability which sounded like a shooting technique.

BANG. And as if the Sheriff had decided to make a demonstration of the power in question, a pistol detonation suddenly resounded.

_He shot the thief down? _panicked Fuu while making a swift U-turn to struggle against the other bystanders to go to the front and see for herself what had happened, her insides twisting at the thought of such a cruel execution.

But Fuu – as well as the Mugiwaras and Ace – saw with more of less relief – depending on the level of compassion of the person concerned – that the cow-boy suspected of robbery was still alive.

The Sheriff had his two first fingers positioned like a gun and had apparently fire a bullet made out of his Devil Fruit power straight at the suspect, who was now glowing with a soft black aura.

"It looks like my 'Higan'…" remarked Ace, while raising a curious eyebrow, "But it doesn't look like it's inflicting damages…"

"Who's the owna of the gold y'put on the table?"asked the Sheriff with a monochord voice, igniting his power by his question.

"Me… and that old miner over there…" unemotionally answered the cow-boy stuck in the black aura of the Kaa Kaa no Mi.

"D'you steal that gold to that otha miner?" pursued the Sheriff, his eyes narrowing on the suspect.

"Yeah." calmly answered the cow-boy, as if not controlling his lips anymore.

CLONG. The jaws of a good part of the Mugiwaras had unhooked in a significant noise in front of the scene: the Sheriff was seemingly not doing anything, yet the culprit was confessing.

"W… wait a second! That's the power of the Sheriff?" asked Nami while pointing at the two cow-boys, "He made him confess just like that?"

"Yeah." answered the miner who had answered Nami's question the first time, glad to get to speak again with the beautiful girl again, "When you're hit by his 'Bang Bang, Confess', you're obliged to answer the truth when someone ask you a question… quite a terrific power, hahaha! But since the Sheriff only uses it on criminals, everyone at El Dorado respects him a lot."

_Oups… I agree… rather terrifying! I'd better not come too close from this Sheriff. After all, I'm wanted too, know, and I would prefer to avoid having to answer the truth to any question I could be asked… and on that one, Clow would be on my side… _inwardly sighed Fuu, a drop of apprehensive sweat appearing on her temple at the thought of all the things she would be better off not been asked to reveal.

Meanwhile, the confession of the culprit had solved the situation and ended the show, and all the miners were dispersing to resume their occupation, leaving the Sheriff put on handcuffs on the thief and taking him away.

But upon passing in front of the little group of pirates, the Sheriff shot a glance to them, and more particularly Luffy, Zoro and Ace, as if measuring them up.

SHIN. A short silence fell upon the place under the inquisitive stare of the Sheriff and the wind blew some tumble-weeds across the small distance which was separating him from the pirates.

The Sheriff finally averted his eyes without a word and walked away, taking the thief with him.

"Tsk…" screeched Zoro, his arms crossed while shooting a distrustful glance at the huge blond cow-boy which was now mounting his horse.

_Huh…? _wondered Fuu at seeing the swordsman reaction, wondering if it was due to his reflexes of former bounty hunter or to the fact he was still wary of horses.

She gazed at the Sheriff who was now leaving the mines at a gallop towards the far-away city, the culprit 'delicately' thrown in front of the rider, head towards the floor and his hands tied in his back .

_Oh my… Must be awfully uncomfortable… _thought Fuu while repressing a laugh at imagining the face the thief would be making when finally reaching El Dorado prison, hesitating on the shade of green such a trip would give him, _Probably more effective to discourage a thief to steal again than letting him get mouldy inside his cell, hihihi…_

"Hum…" chimed in Ace's voice who had walked towards her and watched her gazing at the Sheriff with a smile, "So your type of man, it's a huge husky guy with bushy yellow hair and a thick slang accent?"

"Wh…? Oh, stop it!" ranted Fuu in a defensive reflex, "Of course not, my type of man is not like that!"

"Ooh? So I had been right all along to think it was the centaur…" teased Ace with one of his usual crooked smile.

"Grr… What's the problem, bringing that up again? Who do you think I am?" retorted Fuu, deeply vexed and puffing her cheeks in a sulking expression, "Of course I prefer humans, tsk… Though if it's to have someone as brainless and lacking of tact as this Sheriff is, humans are probably not the best choice either…"

"So on top of being strong and being respected by everyone for fighting for justice, you would like a man with other qualities?" mocked Ace while provoking further his interlocutor, "You're really difficult…"

SNAP. The last comment had made Fuu lose it, vexed and hurt to receive such a remark again – the topic of her ideal type of man having always been a sensible topic back in her world – and by Ace moreover.

"Of course!" ranted she while trying to keep her cool despite all the irritating memories of debates with her friends or family popping up in her mind, "Just what do you think? That anyone would do? That a girl would be ready to follow anyone without at least judging first the person in front of her? Grr…"

"Ooh… And what do you judge him on? Why would you not consider the Sheriff as a man for you?" pushed further Ace with a clearly provocative smile.

"Grr… Why is it that I should justify my choice?" snapped Fuu, more and more angry by the conversation, "I can't really do anything if I prefer men different from him… besides 'justice' is a notion I'm not particularly fond of, even I do appreciate men who care about the people around them… And what if physically I prefer dark-haired guys…? What if I prefer men who smile rather than ones who stare at you with scary expressions like this Sheriff…? You want to know what's my dream guy? He should be serious, and faithful but independent at the same time… he should be strong and taller than me, sure, but not a husky brute like this Sheriff… he should care about others and be close to them without suffocating them… And I prefer men with who I can speak, and travel, and debate, and maybe fight when needed because I hate it when nothing happens in a couple… and I… I just… like…"

But Fuu's train of thoughts slowly came to a stop as she was realizing that all the elements of her description were unfortunately matching a bit too well the person who was standing just in front of her.

_I like… _gulped she down with difficulty while gazing at the obsidian eyes which were staring right at her.

"Hum… I see…" smiled Ace with one of his most arrogant teasing smile which instantly made Fuu blush of three shades.

_Grr… _cursed she while biting her inferior lips with shame, _I got carried away… I just answered his provocations and told him all of that without thinking… Habits are bad, definitely irremediably bad… How could I forget he's not just the usual friends I'm debating with…? He's not even a GIRL friend, how come I can just speak of my ideal type of man with him like that, grr…? I'm an irremediable idiot! The worst idiot ever!_

"HEY! Fuu, Ace!" shouted Nami from the desk of the Register Office, "We received an identification number: we can begin to mine this mountain!"

_Nami… excellent timing! _sighed Fuu with relief while rushing towards her friend with Berry-shaped eyes, abandoning behind her Ace and their embarrassing conversation.

And the eleven pirates – lead by an extremely enthusiastic Nami – entered the galleries in quest of a free location to begin their gold extraction, hoping to be able to find tons of them before sunset, which would be bringing a mandatory curfew for the miners.

**

* * *

EL DORADO, MINES GALLERIES**

"Wait a second…" roared Zoro, a shovel and bucket in each hand and a vein dangerously throbbing on his temple, "Why should I dig this rock for gold while you're just ordering us around? You're not planning on making us do all the hard work, do you?"

"Did you say something, Zoro?" asked Nami with a frosty smile, "Probably that you were happy to be able to earn the gold that will be used to pay back your debt, right?"

"Grr…" roared Zoro with rage at the mention of his debt which was endlessly inflating.

The last live embers of opposition thus suffocated, Nami began very enthusiastically to distribute the tools to all the guys.

"_**Mine, boys, mine ev'ry mountain,  
And dig, boys, dig 'til ya drop,  
Grab a pick, boys,  
Quick, boys,  
Shove in a shovel,  
Uncover those lovely  
Pebbles that sparkle and shine,  
It's gold and it's mine, mine, mine" **_began to sing Nami with Berry-shaped eyes.

_Just where did Nami found inspiration for this song…? _wondered Fuu with a flabbergasted expression, _It's really not her style to start singing just like that, and on top of that that song is reminding me of something… though I wish I'd remember what this something is, hum…_

**

* * *

A FEW MINUTES LATER**

_Wow… Amazing… _inwardly conceded Fuu while watching at the Mugiwaras.

Indeed, under the energetic lead of Nami, the rest of the group had by now found their rhythm of extraction, digging into the portion of gallery they had found in some far-away gallery of the mine.

And Fuu could now admire with amazement all the eerie techniques which were making the Mugiwaras so… special… and their present predicament so comical.

First of all, Franky had created a full system of rock crushing in less time than it should be humanly possible.

_Just where did Franky found all the supplies for such a thing?_

Ahead of the huge strange machine were working Usopp and Chopper, using a powder they had both mixed up to make the surface of the rock explode in order to supply Franky's device with stone to crush.

_I don't know if I should feel frightened or impressed that they manage to detonate the gallery wall enough to extract the stone but not enough to make the gallery collapse on us all…_

Downstream, Luffy and Sanji were carrying the buckets filled with crushed stone to bring it to Nami, who was sitting at a small wooden table – also built in a fraction of second by Franky – to examine them carefully, searching across her jeweller's magnifying glass traces of gold veins, before throwing in her back the stones devoid of the precious metal.

_Wow… Her rhythm is hellish… How is she doing to analyse all these pebbles in a mere seconds?_

In Nami's back, at the end of the process, were standing Zoro and Brook, in charge of getting rid of the useless stones. Sometimes, the rock didn't even have time to hit ground before one of the two swordsmen was reducing it in dust under multiple speed-light slashes.

_So impressive… I had never seen Brook's swordsmanship before, and I guess he's not only a perverted skeleton musician…_

BAM. One of the stones Nami had thrown over her shoulder hit Zoro on the head and he started to rant over, while Nami was coolly retorting back that he wasn't in position to negotiate.

_Hihihi… Zoro is usually calm and composed… probably one of the calmest among the guys, but sometimes, when he's with the others, I guess he just loses his cool like anyone else, hihihi…_

On the side, the three people that Nami hadn't requisitioned – be it voluntarily, by being seduced into it or by being threatened – were calmly passing time, sitting on huge bench-like stones near the opposite gallery wall.

Robin had re-opened her book 'Gold Prospection for Dummies' and was calmly going through its pages.

Ace had first planned on taking a nap, not feeling concerned by the prospect of digging into the rock to find gold for their money-loving navigator, but he had soon changed his mind at seeing that Fuu was joyfully cheering everyone up and encouraging the workers when they were making their preparations. He had silently endured the sight of seeing her cheerfully commenting everyone's hard work and had finally stood up to go and pat on Franky's shoulder to ask him for a pick and tell him where to dig, to everyone's surprise. It had of course interrupted a bit the flaw of the work, Luffy starting to find it more interesting to use a pick than to carry buckets, and the two brothers had fought over the tools for a couple of minutes before launching a huge challenge of the one who will manage to mine more than the other and to start their competition at full brotherly-rivalry-power.

Fuu had laughed a lot, finding it priceless for the two siblings to make a competition out of everything, but was now starting to consider that since nobody needed her – Sanji having forbid her to let her _beautiful _hands get dirty by such a hard work – she might be better off leaving the camp in quest of her dear Duck and his associated paradox.

_Hum… It would be better not to bother anyone and interrupt their assembly-line-looking work__ once more…_

And Fuu finally stood up and dusted the fabric of her dress before grabbing her bag.

"Are you planning on going somewhere?" asked Robin with a quick glance for her nakama.

"Hum." nodded Fuu while softly putting her bag on her shoulder, "There is someone I need to find, and it's important…"

"Are you going… alone?" asked Robin with the same neutral tone.

"Huh? Hum… well, yes, of course…" mumbled Fuu, completely taken aback by the question, "Everyone is busy looking for the gold, so I can't bother them to come and look for someone in these galleries with me…"

Robin's lips spread in one of her usual amused smiles, and she shot a quick glance to the actively-working silhouette of WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

"Bother, hum…? Well, I suppose it's not the dangerous kind of walk, after all. See you later, then…" wished Robin while resuming her book.

"I'll come back before curfew, so it shouldn't be an inconvenience for dinner or night preparations…" specified Fuu while calmly walking away, "See you later…"

**

* * *

SEVERAL HOURS LATER**

_Grr… This damned stingy duck! Just when someone is looking for him, he has to be so paranoid and work alone on some secret spot of his so that no one would come and steal his gold! Every miner I questioned told me he was the solitary type of person, not sharing any information with anybody, not even spending his gold at the saloon on evening… Tsk, I know all of that! I read all of that when I was little, about the Klondike, about Australia, about his nephew and the nephews of his nephew… But now, I understand way better why this damned duck had so many enemy in the comics, he's so damn irritating!_

_On the other hand, all the other miners were so polite and diligent, it's really nice to see people paying attention to your questions and so eager to help you! Well, but the only thing I don't understand is the eerie smile they all had… a bit perverted I think, but it might only be an impression… I mean, why would they stare at me that way? I admit there might not be a lot of girls among the miners present in these galleries, but still…_

But what Fuu couldn't know about the miners' eerie smile while answering her questions was due to her own reputation which had run ahead of herself and reached the mines before her, warning everyone that the Son of Gold Roger was in town with his lover, a girl with a white dress and hazelnut curly hair who didn't look like it but had some serious references for her in bed.

And all the miners – quite diverted by the gossip but still caring more about their life than about verifying if such rumors were true or not by inviting her to have some good time with them – had therefore behaved to their utmost good at seeing her coming to talk to them while mentally imagining what such an innocent-looking girl might hide behind the fold of her white dress.

_And there's something else bothering me a lot… Among the miners, I've met some Seven Dwarves which are obviously not at their place in this universe… I thought Nami's song was reminding me of something a bit earlier, but now I know for sure that it's also due to the same paradox… And the senile granny from this morning must also be part of the same fandom…_

_The problem is that when I touched the dwarf, nothing happened! They didn't turn into a Feather or even disappeared… And the Chinese Granny of this morning neither… So it seems the whole key to this paradox is the Gold Core: if it's the same as at Fimbul, I won't be able to solve anything until I can find it…_

_Tsk… A Walt Disney paradox is probably not the most dangerous or annoying paradox one could find, so I can think myself lucky I guess, but it's still really weird to see its characters walking around as if it was normal… Even if they're harmless, it's a very numerous fandom, Walt Disney… And it's also definitely utterly WEIRD! Too weird… definitely not at their place… I think I'm beginning to understand why Clow takes it as a personal offense when he sees weird cross-overs between One Piece and other fandoms…_

And lost in her own thoughts, Fuu finally came in sight of the Mugiwaras' gallery portion.

_Well, if I can't find this damned Uncle – who is not an uncle yet, but well… – in the mines, maybe I can try in the city when we'll go back to bring the gold to the exchange deal… HEY?_

Fuu's thought came at a stop when not recognizing the portion of the mountain they had set camp into. The central gallery had by now widened by tens of metres of diameter under the shovelling work of Franky's machine, and that long tortuous 100m tunnel was now connecting this cavern to the outside – the two hyper-active black-haired siblings having had no choice than to stop their picking contest upon reaching emptiness.

But despite their digging efficiency, the bags having been labelled 'Gold' in anticipation by Nami were seemingly as empty as they had been when Fuu had left…

Ace was now taking a nap on the floor of the cavern, hands behind his head and his hat dug deep on his eyes, his lips tightened in a sulking expression due to the fact that he had realised upon finishing his course with Luffy that Fuu had since for long left, and therefore had not witnessed his impressive physical performance.

Robin was still calmly reading her book on the stone bench, while the rest of the Mugiwaras were keeping on their excavation while humming a cheerful song.

"_**Just whistle while you work,  
Put on that grin and start right in to whistle loud and long,  
Just hum a merry tune,  
Just do your best and take a rest and sing yourself a song…"**_

_Oh my… Another out of place song… _thought Fuu while sweat-dropping at the sight, _Maybe I should have brought back these dwarves to sing along them, sigh… I really need to find this Gold Core and solve this paradox before it contaminates more of the One Piece world!_

Fuu gazed at the emptier-than-empty treasure bags and heaved a deep sigh.

"Robin…?" called she with a somewhat puzzled expression, "They still haven't found anything, isn't it?"

"Nothing." philosophically reported Robin without raising her eyes from her book, "They've been digging in this very same wall since you left, and of course didn't find anything…"

"But… then why didn't you tell them?" mumbled Fuu, taken aback by the answer.

"About what?" calmly asked Robin.

"Well, hum… what you just said… it's… well, you probably noticed too… It must be explained in your book…" began Fuu, a bit embarrassed to be obliged to specify her question, "If they keep on digging in this kind of rock, even after a year, Nami won't see a single gold vein…"

"Indeed…" commented Robin with a soft smile while patting the book softly, "But have you ever tried to have a sensible geological discussion with Kokaishi-san when she has Berrys in place of eyes?"

"No… Quite true…" mumbled Fuu while looking with circumspection to her mikan-haired friend which now rather resembled a terrifying dictator rather than a smart and composed navigator.

"People usually clear their mind during night-time so we should be able to offer Kokaishi-san a different strategy tomorrow morning…" announced Robin with a calmer than calm tone, before focusing back on her book.

_Tomorrow morning, huh… _thought Fuu while eyeing with discomfort the galleries around her, _Can't escape spending the night in the mines, I guess…_

And while inwardly cursing the fact that she now had nothing more to help and keep her mind busy – her dear Duck being impossible to find – Fuu slowly sat down on the bench-like stone and brought back her legs onto her to patiently wait for time to fly by.

**

* * *

AN HOUR LATER**

At sunset – even if no one could realize the sun had set, except that it was starting to get colder – an administrator of the mines came passing through all galleries while ringing a huge bell. The chime reverberated in the labyrinth of galleries and announced the end of excavations for the day.

Willy-nilly, the Mugiwaras stopped their digging – Nami's frustration losing to the threat of having a percentage of her future gold confiscated for breaking the curfew rule – and everyone assembled to set up the bonfire.

"Ah…" blanked Zoro when opening the bag with camping furniture.

"What is it?" asked Fuu while kneeling down near the swordsman to help him set up the tent and the rest.

But Fuu blanked out too at seeing the content of the bag.

"Ah…" said she in a disappointed sigh.

"What 's the problem?" asked Usopp while coming near them.

"Well… the tent is missing…" muttered Fuu with a troubled expression.

"What?" shouted Usopp, attracting everyone else's attention.

"What?" snapped Nami, her face as scary as it could be, the frustration of not having found gold yet piling up with this last piece of bad news, "What do you mean, the tent is missing?"

"It's true… It's not in the bag…" checked Chopper while rummaging in the huge bag.

"If it's the tent you're looking for, I've been repairing and modifying it two days ago…" remarked Franky while scratching his chin, "Maybe I forgot to put it back in the bag…"

"WHAT?" snapped the rest of the group, more or less on the nerves depending on who was concerned.

"Ah, hum… But… but the blankets are still there…" tried to temper Fuu, feeling a bit uneasy about the uproar and wondering if she should discreetly make appear a tent in the bag with one of her 'spells' before abandoning the option at realising she would get easily caught.

Sanji was now ranting with Zoro over the fact that he was a 'damned stupid seaweed head without any brain' and that he 'should have checked the content of the bag before taking it' and Zoro was snapping and insulting him back, feet and swords starting to tremble with the urge of fighting each other.

"Nami…" calmly called Fuu with a weary sigh, "It's not that bad if the tent is missing, isn't it?"

"That's because you've never had to sleep near the guys around a bonfire before!" ranted Nami with a vein bumping on her forehead at the remembrance, "They manage to jump all around the place even in their sleep and hit you in the middle of the night…"

_I see… _sighed Fuu with a weary drop of sweat appearing on her temple.

And it wasn't long before the dinner was ready, Sanji always taking cooking utensils in his own bag with the food supplies, and Ace having readily lightened up a warm fire in the central space of the gallery.

After Fuu and Chopper had panicked about the utmost dangerousness of lighting up a fire inside a cavern for a whole night and tried to explain everyone how an intoxication to carbon monoxide would definitely not be the best way to end their adventures in the mine, Fuu had finally been allowed to use one of her 'spells' to create a thin bubble around the fire.

"Amazing!" exclaimed Nami while touching the thin membrane, "Almost like the coating Rayleigh had made for the Sunny to let us cross Fishman Island!"

_A… coating…? _Thought Fuu, completely puzzled by this piece of information since she had never seen the substance in question, be it when reading One Piece at home or after having arrived in this world.

"And like that, the warmth will still be diffused but not the gas!" explained with a satisfied expression Chopper who had been supervising the whole process.

"You'll still have to explain me why you made the wood and flames float inside it, though…" commented Franky while scratching his cheek, "It wasn't suuper useful, right?"

"Sorry Franky…" apologized Fuu with a small blush at realizing how unnecessary it had been to do so, instead of letting the fire on the ground, "Levitating spells are still the things I master best…"

"Anyway…" interrupted Sanji while taking off the pan from the fire, the bubble instantly reforming itself as it was taken out, "Just quiet down and I'll serve dinner soon!"

And indeed, half-an-hour later, he had finished to cook enough food to feed the walking stomachs of the group, making Fuu wonder how he had managed to finish so many dishes and in such quantities in such a small amount of time.

"My goddesses, here is your dinner!" announced Sanji with twirling heart-shaped eyes, "And Nami-swan, please do not worry over the mistake of this stupid Marimo and enjoy this meal with high-recovering properties! I put all my heart in it!"

_Recovering? _snapped the other guys around the bonfire, _She made us sweat for half-a-day while staying seated the whole time and he's only caring about her?_

But they all pushed away the disagreeable report that the cook was only preoccupied by the girls of the group and helped themselves to the food he had prepared.

And what made everyone jumped with shocked expression was that the second bag Zoro had taken with him upon leaving the Sunny was filled with bottles of alcohol – something he had NOT forgotten to check before leaving the ship.

The little fight over Zoro's priorities order lasted almost an hour, and after some point, everyone was singing around with their glass filled alcohol.

Kampais and bursts of laughter chimed in for a good – or rather only – two hours, before everyone collapsed on the floor and started snoring, exhausted by all the digging.

"Hum… Impressive…" inwardly laughed Fuu – who had managed to escape alcohol in her glass – while quietly moving between the crouched body of her sleeping nakamas to delicately open out blankets on them.

Robin had by now closed her book and laid down too, but at a safe distance from the hyper-active group, and Nami was sleeping in Luffy's arm, close to the warm bonfire.

Draughts of icy wind were beginning to engulf into the mine galleries through the opening Luffy and Ace had involuntarily caused during their digging contest, and Fuu shivered a bit while looking around her, the dark rocks and the cold stone seeming to try and swallow up the light of the small fire.

"Fuu, you can go to sleep too." quietly called Ace's voice in her back, "I'll be on guard duty first, until our forgetful swordsman wakes up."

"It's fine, I can take the first turn." announced Fuu in low voice while turning towards him, "I don't feel like sleeping now so you can go instead."

TILT. Ace's eyes widened a bit at the declaration, and surprise soon left place to a faint teasing laugh.

"Because you seriously think I could sleep soundly while you would be mounting guard?" grinned he while shooting a glance at the hazelnut-haired girl.

_Hey… That's mean! _thought Fuu while inwardly sulking at the comment, _Especially coming from someone who's suddenly falling asleep in the most SOUNDLY way, any time he's turning narcoleptic, grr…_

"Don't take me so lightly!" retorted she while puffing her cheeks in a sulking expression, "I've got a weapon now, and in case of emergency, I can use one of my 'spells' to protect all of you! So you shouldn't be worried, I'll do my job perfectly!"

But her answer only made Ace's smile grow wider as he was silently laughing at the fact that it wouldn't be THEIR fate that would worry him to the point of depriving him of sleep but rather the one of the guard.

But as he was looking at the stubborn expression of his interlocutor, gazing at how flushed with vexation her cheeks were, he couldn't help but want and provoke her further.

"Then how about staying up with me to show me how good a guard you are!" offered he with a challenging grin.

_Grr, but that removes all the benefits of mounting guard IN TURN that! Grr…_

Fuu didn't move at first, staring back at her interlocutor and mentally weighting what were her options.

The cold nigh breeze flew by and agitated the bubble cover of the bonfire…

And Fuu finally heaved a deep sigh at seeing that Ace was giving her one of his usual provoking smiles: the same _annoying _grin as the one on the smiley of his hat.

And under the flabbergasted reaction of Ace – who had definitely not expected her to yield to him, but rather fight back with all her usual stubbornness – Fuu slowly walked towards the long flat stone Ace was using as a bench and sat down near him.

"I… I was kidding…" mumbled Ace, a bit – a lot – taken aback by her reaction.

Fuu didn't answer and simply brought back her legs on her chest while gazing absent-mindedly at the fire floating in front of them.

"Fuu, you can go and sleep, really…" insisted Ace, completely disconcerted.

"It's fine…" softly answered Fuu, "Being here doing something useful is way better than lying on the floor without being able to sleep for the whole night…"

"Why is that…? Hangover already?" half teased Ace while perfectly knowing that his interlocutor was usually never drinking alcohol.

"Would be nice…" smiled Fuu while considering that having your head ringing out like a bell might be a good option to avoid letting your thoughts dwell on things making you feel uneasy.

TILT. The out-of-place remark made Ace instantly recover his seriousness: seeing Fuu avoid a fight with him and then even joke around about wanting to have a hangover was definitely weird.

"Fuu…" asked he in a serious tone while frowning a bit, "Why is it that you won't be able to sleep for the whole night?"

TILT. This time, it was Fuu's eyes which narrowed at hearing the remark, and her hands tightened a bit on the fabric on her dress.

"Well, I…" began she while carefully choosing her words, "It's a bit confined here…"

_Confined…? _though Ace, a bit perplexed while looking at the ceiling which was still high enough to allow Brook to stand under it, and the excavation had widened the gallery into an half-circle-like cavern – the tunnel picked by Luffy and him not counting since it was rather long than wide._ Why would she think it's confined?_

And Ace looked earnestly at Fuu, as if asking her to explain herself.

"I…" mumbled she while glancing around with a weary and defeated expression, "I'm just not doing great with confined places…"

SHIN. Ace froze, and in his minds suddenly came rushing some images of Fuu from these past hours.

_She stayed silent, sitting back to the wall of the gallery with her knees huddled up onto her chest, just like she is now… _thought Ace while detailing her cautiously_, Her breath is short and meticulously timed, too meticulously timed to be natural… it's like she's controlling it, forcing herself to breath regularly… And now that I think about it, she barely ate dinner…_

"Fuu…" finally spoke Ace, trying to repress the irritated feeling rising in his voice, "Are you… claustrophobic?"

TILT. Fuu's eyes widened, and she blushed a bit before averting her eyes from her interlocutor.

"Yes…" confessed she in a barely audible voice, her arms still around her legs as if to hold herself together and cradle herself.

"Why didn't you said so?" snapped Ace while standing up in rage, stupefied and cursing himself for not having realised it before.

A few grumbles came from the nearby sleepers, and Fuu gave Ace a harsh stare for having shouted like that. WhiteBeard's Second Commander clenched his fists and forced himself to chill out, sitting back on the stone bench with a deep irritated sigh.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner…?" repeated Ace in a calmer voice but still in a reproachful tone, "We could have…"

"I hope you're kidding right now too…" interrupted Fuu with a tone mixed of determination and weariness, "To let something as stupid as that deprive them of their treasure-hunting adventure? I'd rather die…"

Ace clenched his teeth a bit more and tried not to bust into another rant.

"Tsk…" finally grumbled he while trying to keep composure, "Treasure-hunting maybe… But it's going to take days or weeks before they can find a single vein of gold in this mountain… Are you seriously planning on staying like that for so long?"

_She must be kidding me… _inwardly roared Ace while staring at the bonfire without really seeing it, _Even without telling Luffy and the others, we could go back to town together… Wait for them there… Or even search for this duck and this item she needs to find… No wait, that won't do, she said the duck was a miner too, so he's probably somewhere in these mines, tsk…_

"I should be fine…" answered Fuu in a way too vague tone as far as Ace was concerned.

_Should be fine…?_ _Who is she trying to delude? She's obviously NOT fine! _sighed he while shooting a glance at his hazelnut-haired interlocutor, _If she's admitting her weakness like that, it's quite obvious that she must be feeling tremendously bad… this baka never wanting to recognize she can be weak, like anyone… Tsk, why is it that she's always waiting for it to reach a critical point before speaking about it?_

"Besides, it's been several years now that I have been trying to control my claustrophobia crisis, so…" pursued Fuu while forcing a confident and disciplined smile on her lips, "So you shouldn't concern yourself with it, I'll manage on my own…"

SNAP. The last sentence had aggravated Ace to no point, and Fuu could only startle in wonder at feeling his immediate reaction to her statement.

_Huh…? _thought she, flabbergasted, at feeling herself being pulled onto Ace, strongly but tenderly.

"Who ever said you had to bear with it on your own?" declared he with an angry tone, his arm passed around Fuu's shoulders to hold her close to him, "For something like that… at least for things like that you should rely a bit on me!"

Fuu's eyes widened at the declaration, honestly surprised and puzzled by it but, for the first time ever, she did not fight back Ace's catch. She just gazed at the bonfire, her face a mixture of surprise and consent, sadness and gratefulness.

Ace was also staring at the flames dancing in front of them while mentally cursing himself for not having found anything better to do for her than that, but still without wanting to let go.

Long seconds flew by, and Ace felt surprised at gradually feeling Fuu's respiration calming down. He surprised himself at watching out for the little signs that were telling him that her breathing was resuming a normal pace. The intervals between two of her breaths on his skin, the slow motion of her chest making her dress ruffle onto his own body, the upheaval of her bust he could sense right under his left arm… everything was telling him that she was relaxing little by little.

Not even daring to move by fear of breaking the spell, Ace slowly turned his eyes towards Fuu's face, and felt something tingle in his chest at seeing that Fuu's expression had softened, and that her eyes were slowly closing down.

Long and silent minutes chimed out, only troubled by the sizzle of the flames and the crackle of the fire-wood, and Fuu felt her eyelids irremediably falling, her body thus claiming some rest after having been put through frayed nerves for a major part of the day.

And she finally abandoned herself to sleep, her mind strangely allowing herself to lower her defence and letting her take some rest despite the oppressing environment she was in.

Her knees slowly left her arms, distancing themselves from her huddled up position, and relaxed gradually on the floor. Her head fell gradually on the side but soon found some support and cuddled onto it.

Her breathing slowed down as she was finally falling asleep, abandoning her fear in the warm and comforting arms of the one who had hold her onto him.

"Baka…" murmured Ace in a breath while softly taking off his arm from around her shoulders to delicately place the blanket – the one he had kept nearby for his guard duty – around her.

_Tsk… Why must she take it onto her for just anything? _thought Ace while gazing at the expression of the hazelnut-haired girl sleeping on his shoulder, _She's got the right of being tired, from times to others…! She's got the right to be afraid or show some weakness, sometimes…! Baka, it's so not cute to pretend to be strong all the time!_

While still keeping his movements to the minimum by fear of waking up the sleeper, he resumed his watch duty, both hands joined in front of him and his eyes wandering on the flames of the bonfire eerily floating in a bubble at half-a-metre from the ground.

Fuu's breathing was slowly counting down time, and Ace could now feel the skin of his chest shiver each time she was exhaling, as if each of his nerve endings had agreed to multiply the sensation and increase his trouble.

_Damn it… _ thought he while ordering himself not to let his thoughts wander from the straight and narrow.

"Time for the shift!" suddenly announced the voice of the one who had approached in their back, two bottles of whiskey in his hands.

"Roronoa… No offense but I'm afraid I won't be moving for a while." smiled he with one of his self-confident grin.

"Hum…" paused Zoro with a glance for the girl sleeping on WhiteBeard's Second Commander, "Yeah, we need to talk…"

TILT. A bit surprised by the statement, Ace quietly accepted the bottle Zoro was holding out to him and patiently watched as the swordsman was going to sit on a another large rock on the other side of the fire.

The two men stared at each other for some time, sizing up their interlocutor with a crooked glance while slowly gulping down some whiskey.

Seconds… minutes flew by… one by one… in silence…

"So… What are your intentions?" finally asked Zoro with a knowing glance for the sleeping girl.

"I don't believe it concerns you…" stated Ace with a calm though proud tone, rising one of his eyebrow in a provocative expression.

Zoro stared deep into his interlocutor's eyes for long seconds, as if searching for some elements that might give him hints about what WhiteBeard's Commander's thoughts could be.

And Ace stared back, not planning on losing ground against his green-haired interlocutor.

The freezing night breeze blew on the bonfire, making the bubble float a bit more chaotically…

"If you're playing around with someone who wants to play, I can't care less… If you're serious with someone serious, I'll even give you my blessing… But…" paused Zoro while answering Ace's arrogant smile with one of his trademark shadowy smirk, " … if you're playing around with someone serious… I'll make you taste Hell!"

SHIN. The flames sizzled and the fire wood crackled under a stronger draught…

Ace arched an eyebrow, but dubiously, this time, not really understanding in which sense he should be taking Zoro's declaration.

_Fuu is serious in general but doesn't feel anything special for me… And even if I'm spending my time teasing her because it's the only thing I can do to be special for her for now, I'm NOT playing with her… _tried he to analyse while withstanding the swordsman dark glare without a chill, _So… so…?_

"I don't see what you're talking about…" finally declared Ace with a serious expression.

TILT. Zoro's eyes twitched with wonder.

"She's not the type to play around with anyone, but there's nothing serious either…" stated Ace with a gentle glance for the one sleeping on his shoulder, "So nothing which should concern you!"

TILT. Zoro frowned slightly, inwardly wondering if Ace was bluffing:

_What is he talking about, this dumbass? Even if Fuu seems to have trouble recognizing it, she's clearly behaving differently with him… And almost everyone can see it! He can't be that dense…? I had thought he would be less dumb than our captain, but I got it damned wrong: must be some family traits… Or is it that he's thinking that all the little things he can see are just his wishful thinking?_

"Humph…" grinned Zoro with an expression bordering on an amused provocation, while lifting up the whiskey bottle to his mouth to resume his drinking.

_Tsk… Don't count on me to open his eyes!_

And on this last syllable, the two pirates kept on mounting guard without exchanging a single more word, time flying by at the rhythm of the slow breathing of the hazelnut-haired sleeper who had missed the whole of the conversation, despite her being its main topic.


	4. Ch 3: Pistols and Petticoats PART1

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

Pistols & Petticoats ~Part 1~

…

**EL DORADO, GOLD MINES, EARLY MORNING**

Ace grumpily woke up at the sound the bell chiming in the mines galleries, the administrators announcing the end of curfew time. And he surprised himself with noticing he was now lying on the ground near the bonfire, while Zoro and the others were still snoring on his left.

Rousing himself from his torpor, he dragged himself in a sitting position and felt some soft fabric falling from his bust onto his lap. Still in a daze, Ace gazed at the blanket which had been covering him: the very same blanket he was remembering to have put around the shoulders of a hazelnut-haired girl.

TILT. As realization stroke that such girl was nowhere in sight, Ace snapped awake – completely awake – and turned around briskly, searching his surroundings for the missing person.

But his turmoil cooled down as quickly as it has arisen, when finally catching sight of her, a couple of metres away from him, discussing in low voice with Robin.

WhiteBeard's Second Commander stumbled back on his feet and walked closer to the two women chatting actively, either pointing out at some parts of the gallery or flipping through the pages of the book Robin had open for them to read.

"Fuu…?" called Ace, his voice still groggy from the night, and cursing his own narcolepsy for not remembering when he had fallen asleep, and more specially when she had woken up.

"Ah, Ace! Good timing!" greeted Fuu with an earnest smile at seeing him drawing near, "We're going to need your help to extract the gold, later on."

"The… gold…?" repeated Ace, apparently not awake enough for conversation, but still remembering that the gold had been the least of his preoccupations the night before.

"Yes, the both of us have finished checking onto the details." announced Robin with one of her usual calm smiles while closing up her book, "But we're going to need your fire power, Ace-san. If it's fine with you, of course."

"Hum, sure…" mumbled Ace while massaging his neck, "What for?"

"Well, we are planning on giving a common explanation when everyone else will be awake." softly dodged the archaeologist, "Especially Kokaishi-san…"

And without Ace managing to learn more about the aforementioned plan, he was left to see the little group of campers come to life, one by one – or more abruptly when Nami was sending a kick in the sleepers who didn't want to wake up normally – while Sanji was preparing breakfast with the help of Fuu – for whatever task the cook was allowing her to help, which was quite a comical scene every time.

Ace's claiming stomach then made him review his list of priorities, and he readily joined his little brother for a fight over the food, contributing heavily to the chaos reigning during meal-time, not that it was a change for the group of pirates – only Sanji was despairing about having two black-hole-stomached brothers around, which was a serious threat for his food supply.

"Yosh! Now, back to digging!" finally declared Nami when the plates had all been emptied of their content, "We're not going to let this mountain keep its gold hidden for long!"

But before she could assign jobs again, the mikan-haired navigator saw her two friends drawing near her with a conniving smile.

"Nami…" began Fuu with an enthusiastic smile, "We have a different strategy to propose: it should help us to find the gold more easily."

"What?" exclaimed Nami, both of surprise and eager interest, while the declaration was making the rest of the Mugiwaras converge around them.

"Actually, the rock in which you're digging ever since yesterday has zero probability of containing goldfields." began Robin, having re-opened her book 'Gold Prospection for Dummies' to quote her source, "Veins of gold are formed only in ultra-mafic deposits, such as ultra-potassic rocks and melanocrates, which are igneous rocks constituted at more than 90% of coloured minerals such as iron and magnesium…"

At that point of the explanation, Luffy, Usopp, Zoro and Chopper were back around the bonfire, enjoying a cup of green tea in complete beatitude while discussing how rocks could be 'mysterious', and Sanji and Brook were also seriously considering joining them.

"To keep it simple…" tried Fuu while directing her sentence at them, "It means gold can be found in rock forming blocks – and not in layers – and which look like peppered with a lot of coloured dots… And the rock you were digging in yesterday is plain beige and looks like a layered cake so…"

"So it's useless to keep on digging in this part of the gallery anymore." concluded Robin in a serene tone, before adding in a more enthusiastic tone to cheer up Nami who had started sulking at the word 'useless': "We've found on the west face of a gallery nearby the type of rock we need."

The little group of pirates was now back on their feet and eagerly waiting for more specification.

"It's the reddish wall at 60 some metres in the left gallery." pointed out Fuu while turning back to her nakamas to point in the aforementioned gallery direction, "And the nice thing is that as long as we find the start of a gold vein in this wall, we have a trick to help us extract all the rest of the steam quite easily. It's…"

FUSH. But Fuu didn't have time enough to finish her explanation, as she felt a swift draught pass her by: and as she was staring dazedly at the gallery in front of her which had been empty a mere second before, she could catch sight of five silhouettes which were running towards the nearby reddish wall.

"Yosh! I didn't really catch it, but there's gold in this wall, hum?" exclaimed Luffy with a very motivated grin.

"Trust Super-Franky to cut you up this rock, block or layers alike!" exclaimed the cyborg while already readying tools which were popping out from eerie places of his body.

"Yeah, what Robin and Fuu said, I already knew it! This wall is red, so we'll find gold in it!" lied Usopp with a proud expression.

"For real?" believed Chopper with star-filled eyes.

"I just heard you right, huh…? I really heard it, huh? Just a little beginning of gold vein and that will bring us tons of it, right?" exclaimed Nami with Berrys instead of eyes, as she was shooting a hopeful glance at her two nakamas behind her.

"Hum… kind of…" mumbled Fuu, a huge drop of weary sweat appearing on her temple.

_She's getting carried away! Definitely! And what with that wishful selective hearing? We didn't even finish explaining how to proceed… Sigh…_

"Yare yare…" serenely giggled Robin, having already expected the conversation to never reach its term before losing half of its interlocutors.

"SANJI-KUN! ZORO! BROOK!" called the imperious voice of Nami from the corner of the gallery, "What are you waiting for? Come and help us to search this rock!"

And the three enforced workers walked towards the new extraction point with more or less of enthusiasm.

"Zoro-san, it's the left gallery…" kindly pointed out Brook upon reaching the crossing, as the swordsman was going in the opposite direction.

_Oh my… _inwardly laughed Fuu upon seeing their green-haired nakama mistaking such a simple direction, as usual.

"What about me?" interrupted a voice near her ear, as a strong arm was falling around her shoulders to softly pull her backwards, as if to drive her attention away from the directionally-challenged swordsman, "You said you'll need me, didn't you?"

"A… Ace…?" startled Fuu, trying forcibly not to blush and fighting to move the strong arm off her shoulders.

"We are indeed going to need your help, Ace-san… but not now." answered Robin with an amused look for the scene.

Fuu was still struggling to get away from Ace, and WhiteBeard's Second Commander seemed to have thought the tease to be enough – or either had reached his goal, whatever objective he had had – and had finally released her, but not without sending her one of his most amused crooked smiles.

"You should have your moment with Fuu a bit later…" began Robin with an amused smile at her own innuendo, "When the others will have found a gold vein, we'll use her Devil Fruit power to determine the extent of the steam, and then your fire power will be necessary to extract it from the rock. High electrical conductivity and ductility are two useful characteristics of gold, in our present situation…"

"Useful characteristics…?" repeated Ace while raising an eyebrow, a bit perplexed about the explanation.

"Yes… Gold is a bit special, even for a metal…" pursued Fuu with still a sulking glance for the one who had been teasing her a minute before, "Electricity is running through it really easily, and most of all, it's melting really quickly, so…"

"So we are planning on using one of Fuu's electric sparks to determine in which directions are spreading the gold veins…" explained Robin calmly, "Then to use your fire power to make it reach its fusion temperature and make it naturally flow out of the rock."

"Flow?" tilted Ace with a dumbfounded expression at having difficulty to imagine some gold pouring out from the wall as if it was water.

"Well, kind of…" answered Fuu with an assured smile for their dubious interlocutor, "More like falling…"

"But that still means you need the gold to be liquid for that… right?" asked Ace while frowning, "So if I'm following you right, you want me to heat the gold but not the rest so that it goes out of the rock just like that?"

"Actually, when we'll know how the gold veins are spread out inside the rock, we'll look for the lowest point of the whole steam. Then, at that place, if you're heating the rock enough," resumed Fuu while trying to illustrate her explanation with gestures, "then the heat will propagate directly through the metal and reach every gold vein, making it melt but not the rock, since they're not liquefying at the same temperature. With the difference of level, all the gold melted above the point of extraction will flow down towards the only hole we'll have opened, just like a thick waterfall, and we should able to collect it."

"Wow… Impressive…" admitted Ace in a soft whistle of admiration, "Was that extraction method also mentioned in the book?"

"Well, not really, hihihi…" grinned Fuu with a conniving tone, "But we discussed it together with Robin and found the concept interesting. She's really smart on all kind of topics, it's really impressive!"

"Well… Books are a great source of knowledge…" philosophically countered Robin, "But I'm more impressed by the one who knew about such concepts even before reading them in a book…"

TILT. Fuu's grin instantly vanished as she felt all the underlying meaning of such comment, and when she finally cautiously brought her eyes back on her two interlocutors, it was to face the amused smile of one and the bewildered and curious stare of the other.

_I missed a wonderful occasion to keep my mouth shut… _bitterly regretted she while averting her eyes from them and trying to find something to change the topic.

"Not in a book, hum…" began Ace, unfortunately resuming the conversation before that, "So how is it that you know about that kind of things too, Fuu?"

The last word has chimed in like an injunction not to run away, as if to tell the hazelnut-haired girl that he was perfectly aware of the fact she wanted to avoid the question but wouldn't let her dodge it.

Fuu bite her inferior lips and raised some sulking eyes towards WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

_Great… THE question I would really like NOT to have to answer…! Tsk, Clow is going to chew me again for not knowing my place and playing it smart-ass in a world where people usually don't go to school, never minding study in Universities… And as much as it cost me to admit it, he would be right on this one…_

_I should have thought about it before discussing geology with Robin, sigh… Even if she's really smart and knowledgeable and always has a collection of books about everything and anything, I guess she's a rarity on Grand Line… I'm sure Luffy or Ace never went to school… How could I reasonably justify myself by saying that everyone from where I'm coming from is at least learning that much in geology and chemistry in high school and therefore know the basics about rocks formation and metal fusion? Damn it…_

And while Fuu was rummaging her brain to find a plausible excuse out of her predicament, Ace shot a quick glance at Robin, as if silently asking her if she knew more details. But the archaeologist simply shook her head slightly and decided to press on.

"I'm quite curious too, Fuu." added she with genuine interest, "We had a Master in Quantum Physics who came one day at Ohara, but I remember him saying institutes to study them were rare…"

"So… what about you?" insisted Ace while narrowing his eyes a bit.

"I… hum, I… I followed… private studies…" mumbled Fuu while forcing her brain cells to think faster to try and find a not-a-lie-but-not-the-entire-truth-either version of her past to serve to two of the most sagacious people of their group – and unfortunately two of the most curious ones too.

"Private studies?" startled a bit Robin with an expression of authentic surprise, "But how? I mean, of course it's possible, but on the Five Seas, only Royal Families would have the means to hir…"

SHIN. And Robin stopped abruptly in the middle of her sentence, half-regretting to have already said so much without having considered first what the remark could imply for her friend.

And while she was swallowing back the rest of her sentence, Ace was mentally completing it, adding it to all the things he had already noticed respecting to Fuu's behaviour and knowledge – or absence of knowledge – and finally couldn't help but reaching a very troubling conclusion respecting to Fuu's origins.

"Fuu…" called he faintly, turning his face towards her in a determined yet resigned attitude.

TILT. Fuu froze, inwardly cursing fate for not having let the matter slip and spared her the scene she was already foreseeing.

"Fuu," called once again Ace, but this time grabbing gently her shoulders to force her to look his way, "I'm not going to pretend that what I heard had never been said, so just answer me, okay?"

Fuu's eyes widened and she gazed at her interlocutor with pure astonishment.

_Wh… what…?_

"Fuu, don't take me wrong… It's not that your origins matter a lot, but… Well you know, it's just…" started to explain himself Ace in quite an embarrassed and hesitating tone, as if making up his mind along the way, "It's just, I would really like to know… I'd like you to trust me with the truth…"

_My… origins…?_

Still puzzled by the turn the conversation was taking, Fuu gazed at him intensely, not really understanding Ace's point but feeling her heart tingle at the mention of 'trust' and 'truth' although her head was still screaming her to try harder and review all the escape scenarios available in stock to explain herself without having to say that she was coming from a different world.

"If you don't want to say it, I'll say it for you…" sighed Ace at seeing that his interlocutor's lips were sealed, "It's obvious enough for not needing you to confirm it, now…"

Fuu stopped breathing, wondering what Ace was going to ask her.

"So…" pursued Ace with a determined gaze for his hazelnut-haired interlocutor, "You're from a noble family, right?"

SHIN. A minute of silence fell on the conversation, Fuu blinking but still not breathing, completely astounded by Ace's supposition.

_Wh… what did he just say?_

"You're from nobility, high nobility, aren't you…?" repeated Ace while staring deep into her eyes, his declaration sounding more like an affirmation than a question.

"I… I'm not…" began Fuu in a mumble, not really knowing what to answer to such an absurd supposition and her lungs gasping for more air now that she had remembered how to breathe again.

"It's fine, I told you there's no need to confirm it… Robin's remark was more than enough to seize up the matter…" sighed Ace with a resigned smile on his lips, before letting go of Fuu's shoulders to turn a bit away from her as if ashamed for not having realised the 'matter' before, "And now that I think about it, it's just all too clear and making perfect sense… It explains your attitude, the fact that you're decidedly not looking like a pirate, that you're so obviously different from other people…"

_AHH? Obvious that I am NOBLE…? No but what is he saying, that idiot?_

"After all, it's not hard to see that you're smarter than average… but otherwise, you don't even know the basics for fighting and you're panicking when someone is hurt…" began to enumerate Ace while thinking back about how Doa nobles families were never dirtying their hands and fighting by themselves, "Even for daily routine like sailing or exploring, even if you're trying your best to help out, it's quite obvious that you've probably never done so before…"

_But… But that's just that how anyone from the real world would react, that! We're not pirates since infancy, us! So of course it's not like we're fighting crocodiles every morning and sailing the ocean every afternoon! And of course we would panic upon seeing someone hurt and bleeding and… and…_

_Come on, that's just the normal behaviour anyone from the real world would have if they were to be brutally sent into One Piece! And if you really want to know, I'm sure there are plenty of them who would even behave weirder than me and never adapt to this crazy world, tsk!_

"Hum… And also, you're preferring long dresses to the usual outfits of pirate women, and stay always polite and courteous with everyone, so it's quite clear your education must have been something else…" was still adding up Ace to his little list, without considering he was probably not in position of lecturing anyone on policy, "But the most evident aspect is the fact that you're talking as an equal with Oyaji or Fimbul's Queen, as if they were people you already knew for a long time and were on the same rank as you…"

_What the…? No seriously, for something like that? Well, sure, I kind of already knew about them before meeting them… and I guess since I wasn't really fan enough of them to faint upon meeting fictional characters in real flesh, I might have acted a bit TOO normally… but how would you have wanted me to react without seeming rude?_

"So everything matches: a true lady well educated and who's grown up in a cocoon, not knowing about the dirty aspects of life and not used to associating with pirates…" was concluding Ace, making Fuu's flush completely with shame at such a statement, "And then… if you're really from nobility, it would also explain why you seem to have near to no experience with men!"

BONG. Fuu's fist had violently landed on Ace's skull, the last sentence having definitely made her crack up.

_What the…? How come I'm a princess with no experience with men? You damned playboy!_

"Ouch…" grumbled Ace while softly bringing him back on a sitting position on the ground while massaging his head, "Well, sure… I readily admit that your bad habit of leaving bumps on people's head doesn't do the honours to your origins, but…"

"Wh… what are you saying?" thundered Fuu, still flushed with anger and shame, "I'm…."

"Fuu…" softly cut Robin's voice, making the hazelnut-haired girl stop her denial and turn towards her, "I am supporting Ace-san on this topic… It's not only about your manners, even if I must admit that your curtsey for the Ice Queen was already quite a tell-tale sign…"

_Waaaahh, don't tell me they're putting me in 'Princess' category just for a curtsey? Ace is always bowing really politely to everyone and nobody is calling him a Prince or anything…! Sure, my… greeting… was rather British than Japanese, but anyone who would have seen an Historical movie or drama would know it's an appropriate way of greeting a Queen, and could replicate it easily…!_

_And also… Princesses are not that common, for God's sake! A runaway spying Princess like Vivi is NOT the kind of occurrence which happens very often… seriously! And don't tell me that Luffy and the others are meeting enough Princesses along their trip to think about it as a plausible origin for whatever of their nakamas whose past they ignore, come on…!_

"But the main argument is elsewhere… You might not know it, but on Grand Line, only Royal Families and the Tenryubito have the means to hire Masters in Quantum Physics or other discipline to give private studies to their children, and books with intelligent information are quite hard to find on such sciences…" pursued Robin, who had full knowledge of the facts for having often heard the Scholars of Ohara ranting about the lack of knowledge transmission across the Seas, "So that leaves us with very high chances of you being part of such High Nobility…"

SHIN. Fuu was now gasping at emptiness, mentally trying to assert how someone as smart as Robin could reach such an improbable conclusion concerning her origins, while Ace was also listening attentively, eagerly interested by the black-haired archaeologist line of reasoning.

"Well… I would understand if you want to deny it, considering the present situation, but you can't disagree that a lot of 'coincidences' happened, and that the previous supposition could answer lots of them…" sighed Robin with a resigned and reproachful smile, making Fuu even more ill-at-ease, "Like the fact your brother was able to delay the apparition of a bounty on your head, even after what happened at Marine Ford… Besides, it would also explain why the epithet on your wanted poster is not your real name, and why they would prefer to see you dead rather than to hold a public execution, not wanting to take the risk of letting it turn into a political affair if the name of their precious dynasty were to be sullied by a criminal…"

_Th… that's… well, okay, sure, technically, what she's saying is making sense… Even in our world, History have proved that royalty would rather disavow and kill themselves a renegade than to bet their family pride on it… and it's also true that royalty often has the power to stifle any scandal… Sure, I can't deny that Clow USED some power to hush up my interference at Marine Ford, which INDEED delayed the apparition of a bounty on my head… and INDEED he did so because of our origins… But it wasn't really because of political reasons or of family pride! Well… unless we can call a multi-dimensional paradox a world political affair… and unless his adoration for Oda-Sensei and the shame of having messed up this universe can be called pride… Hum… No wait, that's not the point!_

"And not only would it explain why you are knowledgeable in a various range of sciences or extinct languages, it would also elucidate the fact that both your brother and you have impressive Devil Fruits that even the higher-ups of the Marine or the CP9 would have had trouble to get their hands on…" kept analysing Robin, with a slight rictus are the mention of the CP9.

_D… damn these out-of-this-world Devil Fruits! I knew it was a bad idea right from the start… And even if Clow can't really help it if his author's power turned into his Kari Kari no Mi, he could have toned up with my Hoshi Hoshi no Mi a bit… Now, how can I possibly refute Robin's argument? If they were to exist, such tremendously powerful Fruits can of course only be acquired by the most important people of this universe… because two lucky draws for two people close to each other can't reasonably be explained by coincidence… Ugh… so how am I supposed to counter?_

Robin was now gazing at Fuu with one of her usual mysterious smiles, apparently amused to see her hazelnut-haired friend looking so deep in thoughts, as if rummaging her brain really hard to find something to answer. And such an innocent panicking expression on the face of someone so bad at lying could only make the archaeologist laugh inwardly, thinking that whatever secret she might hold onto, it probably wouldn't be changing who she was.

"Besides, I am particularly attached to this scenario for another reason… On top of rationally explaining a lot of coincidences, I also find it to be remarkably romantic…" concluded Robin with a somewhat knowing smile and a soft giggle.

SHIN. Fuu had immediately stopped her little debates with herself and was now looking at Robin with earnest surprise, her face the picture of bewilderment.

Even Ace – who had kept silent during the whole of Robin's discourse, carefully listening to her arguments and suppositions and eagerly watching their impact on the hazelnut-haired girl hearing them out – raised his eyes towards the archaeologist, quite puzzled by her last comment.

"Ro… romantic…?" repeated Fuu with a baffled expression, completely taken aback by hearing such a word from the black-haired friend who she knew was definitely not the type to participate in fluffy-girly-lovey-dovey chats.

"Yes…" calmly narrated Robin with a smile filled with innuendos, "The very romantic story of a daughter from the highest nobility who would have waived her title to become a pirate when having fallen in love for the son of the greatest criminal of all-time, saving him from his scaffold and then deciding to cruise Grand Line on his side…"

SHIN. Robin's insinuation had brought forth a heavy silence, and long seconds of emptiness dragged between the three interlocutors.

The archaeologist watched with sheer amusement the gradual reactions of the two young people in front of her. Because even if they had both done every effort possible not to turn their eyes towards each other – by fear of thus confirming the link between themselves and the hints given by Robin – Fuu and Ace's expressions were speaking for themselves.

Fuu's cheeks had recover their bright scarlet tone from a few minutes before, but this time not because of shame for being called an innocent princess, while Ace had slowly let his eyes fall under the shadow of his hat, although it hadn't been enough to hide the presence of a slight blush on his cheeks too.

And all interlocutors had now their lips sealed, though it was in deep embarrassment for two of them while the third had them stretched in an impossible-to-interpret smile.

Long seconds – even longer for the two troubled people involved in the innuendo – flew by, barely paced by the sound of picks digging the rock in the gallery nearby.

And the first one to raise his head up again was Ace, who slowly moved his eyes towards the hazelnut-haired girl standing on his right, his left hand of the ground gradually tightening as he was building up resolve.

But as he was parting his lips to break the silence, another scream chimed in from the corner of the left gallery at some dozens of metre from where they were standing.

"FOUND IT!" roared the energetic voice of Luffy, soon followed by a lot of rumbling noises and various exclamations.

"IT'S GOLD!" confirmed a high-pitched exclamation, Nami's voice sounding happier than ever.

And the boisterous noises grew louder as some of their authors were running back towards the part of the cavern in which Robin, Fuu and Ace were standing.

"Fuu-chan, Robin-chan, we finally found some gold!" exclaimed Sanji while appearing at the corner of the gallery, inviting with a smile two of his goddesses to come for the next step of the extraction.

TILT. Fuu had startled at the shouts, and had made a swift U-turn to answer the newcomer, while inwardly ordering her cheeks to cool down.

"Co… coming!" mumbled she while definitely turning away from Robin and Ace, abandoning the previous embarrassing conversation on the spot.

_Phew… great timing! Robin is always having the eeriest remarks, but I wasn't expecting to hear the word 'romantic' from her… It's really OOC I think!_

_Tsk… And I'm sure I became bright scarlet because of her little insinuation… Especially since it would have been impossible not to understand the implied meaning behind it… even Luffy would have understood… and Ace… Ace… Hum, I wonder… what he thought about it… What… what does he think… about it… about me… about u… WAAAAAAHHH! What am I thinking? Stop, stop, stop right now, my mind!_

_Let's stop that right now! Besides, it was only a joke from Robin, it's not like I could take his reaction seriously, whatever reaction he could have… It's stupid to hope and… ho… ho… HOPE? Wait a second, I'm… it's… I'm not hoping anything, it's a misunderstanding, waaaaahhhh… And a twisted one too! What kind of cliché scenario would that be, seriously?_

And while shaking her head from left to right to try and erase some disturbing thoughts off of her mind, Fuu pressed her steps towards the nearby gallery in which were waiting the rest of the Mugiwaras, still dancing with joy around their golden discovery.

A few metres behind her was following Robin, calm and composed as ever, but Ace had not stood up yet.

He was still sitting on the floor, his right hand raised in the direction of Fuu's back and still hanging in mid-air, after missing the hazelnut-haired girl's hand when she had swiftly turned and walked away from him. A faint regret was still lingering in his fingers, for having missed the opportunity to catch her back and crush her in his embrace while demanding her to tell him the truth about her origins, her family and more than anything the reason why she had jeopardized everything to save him from his execution. So his hand was still suspended there, as if his mind and heart were still disagreeing on whether he had been right or not to let her escape, as if he was telling himself not to force her to tell him the truth if it was costing her so much while he couldn't help but want her to confide in him, as if he was still hesitating between propriety and what he truly desired.

So Ace could only gaze at the now empty space in front of him, and finally lowered his hand, clenching his teeth and fists as if to hold back the frustration of seeing her walk away from him without having answered his hopes. He then breathed deeply to calm down, cursing himself for having got his hopes so buffed by Robin's remarks, and finally jumped back on his feet.

And while composing his usual cool expression on his face, he followed everyone's shouts towards the newly-discovered gold steam.


	5. Ch 4: Pistols and Petticoats PART2

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

Pistols & Petticoats ~Part.2~

…

**EL DORADO, GOLD MINES**

In the mine gallery, the joyful and bustling exclamations had finally quieted down and everyone was now rounding up around the gold inclusion in the rock.

"That's it, we've found the start of a gold vein!" Nami exclaimed proudly and avidly, "So what are we going to do with it, now?"

Robin began her explanation, repeating to the whole group what they had explained Ace an hour before.

Meanwhile, Fuu had walked closer to the gallery wall and had put her index finger on the gold inclusion, closing her eyes to focus on an electric spell before activating her Devil Fruit power. The spark fused through the gold vein, propelling itself in the whole steam and rebounding on each dead-end before slowly sending back signals to its issuer. Fuu mentally added up information to represent herself the web of the gold veins in the rock.

"Wow!" The Mugiwaras exclaimed in unison when Robin had finally finished explaining them the system they had elaborated to extract the gold – even if a part of them had probably not understood at all the details of the process.

"So you're going to melt all the gold, Ace?" asked Luffy, turning his head towards his brother, having caught onto that part of the plan.

"Ah, hum… yeah!" grumbled Ace while trying to regain composure to answer normally to his little brother, even if his eyes were still wandering on the back of a hazelnut-haired girl who was still facing the gallery wall.

"So, komusume, what's up? How long and deep is this goldfield?" asked Franky while walking closer to the aforementioned girl.

"I think we're quite lucky…" smiled Fuu, finally opening her eyes and removing her finger from the gold inclusion, breaking her 'spell' in the process." The steam is important in volume and it's not too deep vertically, so it's going to be easy to extract it the way Robin explained."

Everyone grinned at such an encouraging comment and as Nami's eyes glittered with dancing Berries, they started preparing the equipment needed to dig the rock in order to reach the lowest point of the stream.

"So, just where are ending the gold veins? What kind of access do you need?" asked Franky while taking out a little notebook from a trap door of his body.

"Hum… The best would be to dig a shaft here," Fuu began to explain while pointing at a place four metres on their right. "And it needs to be large enough for us to go down into it to extract the gold… But to reach the lowest point of the steam, it needs to be… hum… needs to be…"

"Do you need it to be vertical? Which angle for the digging? And how deep? Where exactly is the end of the gold steam you want to reach?" Franky inquired, already drawing geometrical shapes and calculating angles in his notebook.

"Hum… That's… I… how could I explain…?" Fuu muttered as she was starting to get confused, having in mind the repartition of the gold steam but she was having trouble trying to integrate it in a scheme to work with their current location.

She frowned deeply, trying hard to think of an intelligible way of explaining to their engineer how to access the lowest point of the steam.

_Grr… Oh well… Franky is way more skilled in engineering than I could ever dream of becoming… so I guess it would be better to give him the primary data than asking him to put through my terrible way of explaining … _Fuu thought to herself with a sigh.

Finally abandoning any hope to explain it with words, Fuu put her hand on Franky's forearm before closing her eyes to focus her mind on the 'spell' she wanted to use. Through her Devil Fruit power, the blue-haired cyborg received by telepathy the plan in three dimensions of the gold veins running through the rock. Fuu had even specified with mental focus their actual position and the point they wanted to reach by imaginary stars.

Past the surprise of suddenly receiving such information in such a way, Franky whistled in admiration at such a nice way of explaining things then resumed his scribble on the small notebook to give a quick rendering of the gold steam and of the shaft they would need to reach the lowest point.

"Okay, so… that's it!" said he when he showed the blueprints to Fuu while everyone gradually started gathering around them to see the result of the engineering discussion. "So, here is the gold vein you want to reach as an exit point… and here is where we're going to dig the shaft, a 5-6 metres deep one on some 164° of angle comparing to the wall… It should be enough to give you enough pressure with the downpour of gold to let you control the flow while provoking an aspiration effect for the most faraway veins of the stream…"

_Oh my… I had completely forgotten about that…! _Fuu cursed herself while being secretly grateful to the shipwright for having considered this detail in his calculations.

"… but you'll need to be really well-paced and regular for the extraction or the aspiration effect will be lost, you know…" warned Franky with a knowing glance for Ace who had also come closer to hear about the operation he was going to participate in, "Well, should be fine, I guess, if you're able to keep the temperature constant… Oh, and yeah, now that I think about it, we also need to dig a recess under the extraction point to let you put a recipient under the 'tap'… and I guess that also mean we need to dig a bit deeper to give you and Hiken some vital space… How wide do you want this well to be, komusume?"

Fuu was startled at the mention of the width – or absence of width – of the well in which she was going to climb down, but she ordered herself not to panic yet and relegated her anxiety of confined places to the bottom list of her priority list to give a more rationalized answer.

"Well…" mumbled she while trying to keep the tone of her voice under control, "If the most important thing is not to lose the heat, let's try and keep it to the minimum: 2 metres of diameter should be enough for Ace and I to be standing down there while Robin makes the buckets flow in and out to load them with the gold…"

"2 metres, hum…?" frowned Franky, "Well, it's already quite wide, air-mass-related… 1,5m to 1,75m would be better… and maybe I could make the top of the well narrower, that should help a bit, temperature wise…"

"S…sure…" Fuu stuttered while forcing a smile on her lips, trying her best not to let her mind stop on the word 'narrower' and on each precious centimetre of vital space lost in the process.

While Franky was scribbling a bit more on his notebook, among the various star-shaped expressions full of admiration and Berry-shaped eyes full of expectations, there were two pairs of eyes staring suspiciously at the face Fuu was making, detecting without trouble that something was odd.

The rest of the morning was spent actively digging the aforementioned shaft, Franky having attributed everyone with a task. And this time everyone was at work, Fuu having managed to win over Sanji in an intense debate about whether it was okay or not for her to get her hands dirty in such a task: even the gentleman in Sanji had finally given up at seeing the hazelnut-haired girl so motivated for working – although the real reason behind her enthusiasm had been rather the desperate wish to keep her mind busy with some physical activity than to let it wander on some irrational fears.

Nami had been actively encouraging everyone else while fantasizing about the number of bags they were going to fill with gold, and her motivation had even been enough to make her take part in the 'dirty' work – though it mainly included handling picks and shovels to the guys and throwing out of her ways some buckets filled with gravels.

Robin was often discussing the progression of the work with Franky, while catching back – with one of her duplicated arms – from times to others Usopp who was gliding on the edge of the well and nearly falling into it.

And Ace had joined his brother in the digging, trying to moderate Luffy's enthusiasm in digging like crazy even in places where Franky had not said it needed to be dug… but it was clear that his mind wasn't focusing on the work – as Luffy soon found out when trying to make Ace laugh with one of their grimacing performances with Chopper, before realizing with a sulk that his brother was out of it – and even narcolepsy only stroke twice during the whole morning.

**

* * *

AROUND NOON**

Finally, the so-expected gold vein appeared at the bottom of the well, making everyone shout joyful exclamations of victory.

"The GOLD!" marvelled Nami with Berry-shaped eyes. "Fuu… how long before you can extract it?"

"Well…" paused Fuu, a drop of sweat appearing on her temple at seeing Nami's impatient expression and shooting pitiful glances at their blue-haired engineer to ask for help, "We first need to see which debit we're going to have down there…"

"But logically, considering the volume, it should take several hours…" specified Franky while looking at another page of his notebook where he had calculated with Robin. "If everything is going super well…"

"I see…" mumbled Nami, a bit disappointed by the answer.

"Don't worry Nami, I'll do my best, I promise!" Fuu said, trying to cheer Nami up while repressing a laugh at seeing her friend nearly depressed – the kind of expression that only money problems could cause on the face of the mikan-haired navigator.

"So, are we going down, Ace?" asked Fuu as naturally as she could, trying not to be too obvious as she quickly made a worried glance at the deep and narrow hole everyone had finished digging and in which she was going to jump into.

The long hours of work had for long erased the embarrassment of the 'princess' conversation, but they still both had a lot in their mind. Nonetheless, Ace answered her some confident and reassuring smile, and Robin joined in with as much motivation.

"Just tell me when you will be ready and I'll be waiting at the top of the well to empty the recipients and send you the next ones…" smiled she with a glance for the pile of buckets Nami had diligently prepared near the shaft.

"And what about us?" asked Luffy, all dirty from the previous digging but seemingly enjoying himself a lot and waiting for the next challenge with a joyful child-like grin.

"Franky said there's no place for everyone to climb down…" reminded Usopp while scratching his head with a disappointed expression, "So it's not like we can help…"

Luffy's face crumbled a bit.

"And our dear Robin-san did say that the only useful abilities for extracting the gold were Ace-san's and Fuu-san's…" calmly added Brook, "So it's not like we would be of any use down there…"

Luffy's expression had now reached an even lower level.

"I don't want to make a mess of your little plan, but how about having lunch first?" offered Sanji while lighting on a cigarette.

Luffy's expression had brightened beyond any reasonable point at hearing the offer, but this time it was Nami's face which had crumbled at the thought of having to wait longer before filling up her bags with gold.

"Well… we still need to move all the camping stuff and the bonfire, though… but it should be ready soon." specified the blond cook, while making a vague gesture in direction of the gallery where all their equipment was still waiting. "Is it fine with you, Fuu-chan, Robin-Chan?"

"Oh… hum, well… I… I won't mind skipping lunch, so please don't worry about me…" hesitated Fuu while forcing a smile, knowing perfectly well that her stomach won't allow any food considering how twisted it was at the thought of the narrow well awaiting her.

At the comment, a most of the group stared at her in surprise, including Nami's joy at thinking that such offer meant Fuu was going to take care of the gold sooner than expected before it faltered a bit at realising it was weird for her nakama to play it alone instead of joining the group.

"Skipping lunch?… Are you feeling okay, Fuu-chan?" asked Sanji with a worried tone, "You didn't eat a lot yesterday evening either…"

"Yeah, I remember you giving us your share…" Usopp said with a puzzled expression, "It can't be that you're going on a diet, right?"

"WHAT? A diet?" exclaimed Sanji, his eyes bulging out of their sockets of shock and vexation at the thought, "Fuu-chan, please don't tell me you're planning on losing weight by making cuts in the meals I'm especially elaborating to keep your goddess bodies in perfect shapes?"

"Hey?" tilted Fuu, flabbergasted by the speed at which the conversation had lost tracks, "No, that's…"

"You know, Fuu, Sanji-kun is always very cautious to keep our meals perfectly balanced and full of vitamins so that we can always be at the top of our health and our beauty…" added Nami while turning her head towards her friend with a lecturing pose, "You'll never gain weight with it, so it's useless to want and try stop to eating them!"

"Fuu, you want to stop eating?" exclaimed Luffy, completely shocked at the thought, "But WHY?"

"Fuu-san, it might be customary for young ladies to care about their appearance, but to stop eating won't make you more beautiful." sighed Brook with a resigned pose, "On the contrary, it would only make you the same as me and leave you with only the skin on the bones… even if I do not have skin anymore, yohohoho! Skull Joke!"

"Like I said, it's not…" Fuu tried to say while raising her hands in denial but without having time enough to find argument to counter theirs.

"Yeah, I never understood why you girls are always on diet…" added Franky while crossing his arms, "But if it's because you want to become prettier, I can't really see why you're fussing over it, the cook…"

"You don't understand!" retorted Sanji while pointing at the cyborg, "If Fuu-chan is going on a diet, not only will her skin lose her natural gleam because of anaemia, but she will also lose precious centimetres of bust and hip measurement!"

CRASH. A good part of the pirates present had collapsed on the ground, knocked off by the remark of the blond cook.

"Anaemia…?" repeated Chopper, who hadn't collapsed, him, for not really understanding what the problem could be with Sanji's comment, "Fuu, you have anaemia? Is that the reason why you don't look well? Oh, is it because you used your power before?"

TILT. The rest of the group – who was gradually getting back on their feet – immediately recovered their seriousness at hearing Chopper's suggestion, and Fuu felt more and more worried glances converging towards her.

"Gyaa… Fuu! You used your power?" asked Luffy, who hadn't really followed the previous steps of the gold steam detection, "Just because I told you on the Sunny it was fine to use it from times to others doesn't mean you can do whatever you want!"

The crew all sighed at the thought of the most reckless of them lecturing someone else on such a point.

"It… it's… I'm fine, really…" Fuu tried to reassure him, feeling more and more ill-at-ease by the turn the conversation was taking, "Besides, a couple of spells are really nothing big…"

"But you don't seem well, and you don't want to eat!" insisted Luffy, the last argument being worth every other hint in the world.

"Maybe I should examine you…" offered Chopper, a bit worried.

But as the little doctor was coming near her, Fuu faintly stepped back, running away from his pawns with a troubled look, which only made suspicion grow stronger.

"Hey!" called Zoro in a grumbling concerned tone. "What's the matter, seriously?"

"No… nothing, I'm fine!" Fuu protested with a less and less convincing tone, the conversation having unfortunately brought back to her mind the oppressing feeling that a black narrow well was waiting for her to climb down in its abysses, which was far worse than any anaemia.

And as she was slowly stepping back to keep out of Chopper's reach by fear of having the doctor examine her and determine the real cause of her state, Fuu finally bumped against the one standing right behind her.

Ace shot a glance at her, feeling her body unnoticeably trembling against his, as Fuu's breathing had resumed the unnatural controlled pace she usually had when having a claustrophobia crisis.

_Baka… _thought he while his heart was balancing between irritation and concern, _Considering how heavy her chest must feel right now, it's quite obvious she won't be able to eat, even by forcing herself… But she should have thought about a better excuse, tsk… Now everyone is worried, and it won't be long before they can pull the truth out of her… be it by examining her or pressing her with questions… Really, so annoying…_

And with shared intentions – a part of his heart earnestly concerned, while the selfish part of his heart was saying that he didn't want her to be unguarded and show her weaknesses in front of anyone else than himself – Ace decided that having himself a preference for gold over lunch would be a nice way out of trouble.

BAM. His hands fell on Fuu's shoulders, pulling her backwards out of Chopper's paws – the little reindeer being still determined to examine her – and he shot a confident smile to everyone.

"Okay, I'm part of the 'Gold Team' too, especially since lunch is not ready yet. That way we'll be serving you some treasure for dessert!" announced he with an enthusiastic tone, "And if we're doing the job alright, there shouldn't be any complaint about us not digging enough yesterday, right?"

Nami crooked a smile at the last comment, which was directed mainly to her since she had fought a bit with WhiteBeard's Second Commander on the topic a few hours before.

"Should be fine, indeed…" smirked she with a confident pose.

"Yeah!" shouted Luffy with an overjoyed expression, "If Ace is skipping lunch too, that means more food for us!"

BONG. Nami's fist had rung on her captain's head.

"BAKA! Of course not! We're going to keep them their shares." ranted she before turning back an glorious expression punctuated by Berry-shaped eyes towards the two volunteer workers, "Feel free to ask if you need anything while down there, huh…? But most important, bring us back lot of gold!"

"At your service!" grinned Ace while crooking a confident smile at the rest of the group and a knowing glance at Robin.

Meanwhile, Fuu was still under Ace's arms, a bit stunned by how quickly the situation had apparently been resolved, and inwardly feeling grateful to the one holding her and supporting her despite how childish it was from her to hide her situation to the others.

As everyone finally split up to go and take care of the various things to do – like cooking, cleaning, moving their stuff, bugging the cook to have more food, being ordered around to move the stuff, wondering how to transfer the magical bonfire without getting burnt, etc… – leaving Ace, Fuu and Robin near the gold shaft.

"So…" spoke Robin, breaking the silence which had momentarily fallen in the gallery, "Just like we discussed this morning, Fuu… Ace-san will be heating the rock, and you'll be giving him instructions on temperature depending on the metal consistency; then you'll be using your pistol to control the debit and shape the melted gold; finally I'll be taking care of the supply of buckets and bring them out of the well when they'll be full."

"S… sure…" Fuu agreed with a faint smile she had wanted dynamic – but had failed – while trying to forget the steel knot crushing her insides at the sight of the narrow rocky shaft.

Robin merely shot a glance at her, pausing on the pale cheeks of her friend's face, but didn't say anything. She just turned towards Ace to give him her directions.

"Ace-san, I'm counting on you to follow Fuu's instructions respecting to the heating… and also to be sure everything is fine on her end…!" added she with a conniving glance for WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

The insinuation made Ace smile a bit and he gave her a faint nod.

On her side, Fuu had slowly walked towards the edge of the well, trying to talk herself out of the anxiety which was growing inside her when looking at the dark hole whose bottom couldn't even be seen in the dim lighting of the mine gallery.

_Okay… Let's get it started! It's going to be okay… I'm going to be okay, especially considering the fact that it was my idea… It's fine, it's only six small metres… Even without my wings, I have no reason to feel trapped… It's some solid rock and Franky was the one who designed this shaft, so it's definitely fool-proof! It's fine, it's going to be okay… Everything is going to be okay, everyth…_

Fuu's train of thought gradually came to a stop when she felt a hand softly squeezing into hers: a warm and comforting hand which calmed her nearly instantly, making her repress a serene smile of gratefulness.

"Do you want me to make you go down first…?" offered Ace with a tender smile, lifting Fuu's hand with his towards the well, "Or do you prefer me to jump down first?"

"As… as you wish it…" calmly answered Fuu.

"So let's say 'Gentlemen first'…" softly teased Ace while gently letting go of her hand to swiftly and easily jump in the hole.

A faint thumping sound reached Fuu's ears, assuring her that Ace had safely reached the bottom, and some soft green flames suddenly appeared six metres below, their eerie and comforting firefly-like glow making Fuu's lips spread into a smile.

Amidst the floating lights, a pair of obsidian eyes was gazing intensely at her.

Fuu felt herself smile trustfully at the one who was waiting for her down there, his arms stretched in front of him ready to catch her. She gazed at his confident eyes and their light made her forget about the surrounding darkness. She closed her eyes to only remember them as she was breathing in deeply, and jumped to the front, her feet meeting emptiness.

And when she finally reopened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the crooked smile Ace was giving her while gently holding her against him.

"Thank you…!" whispered Fuu with a smile filled with gratefulness, her hands instinctively passing behind his neck to hug him as gently and strongly as she could ever feel, everlastingly happy for having trust him to catch her back.

A few seconds flew by… arms gradually tightening on both sides and drawing them closer to each other…

But the magical moment was broken when a beautiful arm sprouted from the wall just on their side.

TILT. Fuu startled at the sight, and looked with disbelief at the arms replicating themselves like a ladder along the rocky wall, Robin preparing the relay that will allow her to lift the weights out of the well, just like she had done in Skypiea in the cloud ground to go one level below.

While Ace was clicking his tongue, bitterly regretting the interruption, Fuu's usual embarrassed and independent personality came back at full speed. She quickly lifted herself out of his arms to land back on both feet on the ground, trying her best not to blush at the thought of what had happened, and even gave herself a couple of slaps on the cheeks to make her recover.

Trying to focus on the green fireflies rather than on the surrounding rock, she closed her eyes and casted the same 'spell' she had used on the bonfire, surrounding Ace's flames by a magical bubble to keep them alive and use them as a source of light.

Convinced that the uneasiness caused by claustrophobia will only last until she could get her mind focused on the task at hand, she then walked determinedly – as far as one small step could be called walking, considering the narrowness of the shaft and the fact that Ace and Robin's arm-ladder were already occupying a good half of the available space – towards the gold vein shining in the rock, and observed the metal inclusion with a seriousness.

She pointed out two places of the wall very close to the gold inclusion while asking Ace to put his hands there before sending his fire-power in.

Seeing her recovering her confidence so quickly and not panicking anymore, Ace sighed inwardly – shared between relief and a hint of disappointment – but did as she said, projecting his pyrotechnic energy in the wall to heat intensely the rock and its metallic content, inwardly happy not to be asked to heat the entire wall in one go – something he would have been definitely unable to do, fire being different than magma.

Fuu watched as the gold vein was starting to change consistency and instructed Ace to heat stronger, order that WhiteBeard's Second Commander had had no trouble in obeying, his body feeling way hotter than before since at the same moment, Fuu's petticoats had flew up on her legs as she was drawing her revolver from her satin holster.

And while Ace was cursing himself for having let his thoughts wander onto some unspeakable desires and was averting his eyes to try and hide a blush, Fuu softly bent over, coming closer to the wall and Ace, focusing her attention on the extremity of the gold vein which was melting unregularly, anxious of missing the point at which the extraction will begin.

"It's coming… just a bit more…" estimated she at seeing the gold changing consistency and starting to bump in a sticky way from the wall.

Ace shot a glance on his left, starting to think that 1,5 metre of diameter was in definitive quite small for two people – plus an army of duplicated arms – to stand next to each other, especially when one of them needed to keep his head cool not to mess up the extraction process and the second was the one messing up his head.

"Hum, yes… just like that…" murmured Fuu as if pacing with her words the debit of the melted gold, "But softer… Ace… a bit softer, please…"

DOKI. Ace bite forcibly his lower lip to try and chase the blood that had flushed brutally in his cheeks and his body at hearing Fuu whisper such an easy-to-misinterpret sentence in with what sounded to him like an all-too-tempting tone.

Meanwhile, Fuu slowly cocked her silver pistol, pulling the cylinder until the 'One' setting, and pressed the trigger softly without releasing it: DOMM, a small bubble of icy wind appeared at the end of the barrel, but without leaving the extremity of the revolver.

Fuu's body tensed as she was trying not to move abruptly, by fear of making the bubble burst with a false move. She breathed in, moving closer to the wall and Ace to position the pistol – and more importantly the bubble of icy wind – right under the point of extraction.

Meanwhile, one of the buckets supplied by Robin's arms had already been placed just under, ready to receive the gold.

"Ace…" mumbled Fuu, too focused on the shaky bubble at the extremity of her revolver to even dare raising her eyes towards him, "It's a bit delicate, since it's the first… so please listen to me, and move like I say…"

But the directive was completely useless, Ace's entire nervous extremities being already all too aware of Fuu's presence near him, and the rest of his senses on complete alert and ready to catch onto her slightest move or word.

"Ace…" murmured Fuu again, pursuing her explanation, "Send in your fire progressively, and hotter and hotter… but as soon as I tell you, you need to pull back instantly, so that it won't overflow…"

BAM. Fuu startled at hearing a huge thumping sound and cautiously raised her eyes towards her interlocutor: at barely thirty centimetres from her own, Ace's head had violently hit the rocky wall, forehead first and apparently on purpose.

"Ace…?" asked she with a surprised tone, "What the…?"

Ace made no answer and kept his eyes under the shadow of his hair, hoping to hide his beat-red face in the process, as he was repeatedly instructing his head to chill out if it didn't want to be sent flying against the rock again, while reminding his mind that Fuu's previous statements had most certainly NOT been said with the intention of switching him on and that he should therefore keep countenance.

"Ace…?" asked she with a worried tone at hearing no answer from him, bringing her face closer to his to try and discern his expression, "Are you… are you okay?"

"I… I heard you…" Ace finally mumbled while heaving a deep and low sigh to recover countenance but avoiding her gaze, "You want me to heat the rock enough for the gold to flow without discontinuity but without spilling out… I'll find the right balance, I promise…"

_I'm really starting to reach a critical point, tsk… _he thought to himself while ordering himself not to turn his head on the left, afraid that seeing Fuu's face so close to his would reactivate the fire under his skin.

At hearing the sulking grumble, Fuu frowned a bit and focused back on her revolver, half regretting to have worried over him for having hit his head.

As Ace was still cursing himself for having let his mind run wild on a couple of easy-to-misunderstand sentences, the gold finally reached fusion state.

"It's coming…" Fuu announced, giving to Ace the signal to keep the temperature constant at that very particular point.

The trickle of melted gold separated itself from the wall in a sticky way and slowly started to pour out. It entered the icy bubble at the extremity of Fuu's revolver and under the strength of the wind activating itself in the bubble, the metal curled up and accumulated in the centre of the bubble, aspiring the coldness of the icy wind in the process, before finally falling in the bucket at Fuu and Ace's feet, under the shape of a ball of pure solidified gold.

"Wow…" admitted Ace, too impressed by the method to keep on dwelling on his previous predicament.

"It… it worked!" giggled Fuu with an overjoyed smile at seeing that the process she had discussed with Robin was actually going on exactly as planned.

And with both workers focusing optimistically on their tasks and gradually forgetting their inner troubles, the same process repeated itself, the melted gold rolling into Fuu's icy bubbles and falling into the bucket once solidified.

Ace had found his cruising speed – or rather temperature – and was diligently propagating his fire power through the gold steam, understanding without trouble that if he were to stop, it would be really hard to resume the extraction.

Fuu was getting more used to her silver pistol and was now able to string several bubbles of icy wind in a row without bursting them by mistake.

After repeating this method multiple times, the first bucket was finally full with gold nugget resembling baseball balls, and Robin's replicated arms swiftly exchanged the bucket for another empty one, before slowly bringing back the recipient and its precious content to ground level.

Fuu and Ace grinned in satisfaction at hearing the ruckus above them growing into exclamations of joy and shouting voices among which they could both recognize the high-pitched and delighted tone of their mikan-haired navigator.

"Hihihi…" softly giggled Fuu at hearing some exclamations like 'So cool!' or 'We're rich!" whose provenance was as clear as if she had been standing in the gallery with her nakamas.

"Heehee…" chuckled Ace while recognizing the enthusiastic tone of his little brother among the overjoyed people commenting the first bucket content.

But without the opportunity to stop their work to join the feast, they both kept their laughter for themselves and focused back on their tasks: Fuu on the icy bubbles of her silver revolver, and Ace on keeping the temperature of the rock and gold constant.

"Ace! Fuu!" called a voice above them, make both workers to raise their head towards Luffy's distant and grinning face, "Are you doing fine down there?"

"Yep!" grinned Fuu without having to force a smile on her lips this time, since keeping herself busy with the gold extraction had a positive side-effect: leaving no time to her mind to dwell on the oppressing feeling of the narrow shaft.

"Keep it up, you two!" Nami shouted, the navigator having also reached the edge of the well, "The quality is perfect, so just extract more of it! Don't worry about how long it will take, but be sure to collect all of it!"

A huge drop of sweat appeared on Fuu and Ace's temple at hearing the interested encouragement.

"Robin, do you need more buckets?" Nami asked with Berry-shaped eyes at the thought of how much they could earn by filling all the buckets present with gold, "Do you want bags? Do you want…"

But the sound of Sanji calling everyone for lunch cut the talk short and on a few last cheering words, the pirates on the surface walked away from the shaft to enjoy their meal.

_Hihihi… Seems like it as a good idea to stay longer in these mines, after all! _Fuu thought to herself with a laugh. _The treasure hunting adventure sounds like a success!_

And the work went on, more and more gold balls accumulating in buckets that Robin was bringing out of the well.

The rocky shaft was beginning to get really hot, Ace's fire having finally projected through the rock despite its low heat conductivity, and Fuu was now sweating a lot. She was regularly passing her free hand on her forehead to wipe away some beads of sweat.

And as Ace was starting to shot her a couple of glances, apparently aware that a non-Fire-Logia was not as resistant to heat as himself, Fuu started to feel pressured and finally decided to use a 'spell' of resistance to fire and heat on herself, hoping to discreetly escape any question… plan which failed.

"Fuu…" called Ace, at seeing without much trouble a faint red glow surrounding the hazelnut-haired girl and sipping into her flesh, "Just tell me if you want to stop…"

"Huh?" paused Fuu, quite surprised by Ace's offer.

"If this method is still making you use your power, it would be better to stop right now and rather use your spell to fill the buckets with gold…" explained he in a mixture of amusement and seriousness.

"Well… I had already thought about it yesterday… creating gold, I mean…but that just won't do…" softly laughed Fuu while sending an amused smile to her interlocutor.

"Really…?" retorted Ace with a jesting tone and a crooked smile, "I don't think our navigator would find something to say against it… I'm already surprised she's never considered using your power to fill in her wallet…"

"Hihihi… Quite true…" agreed Fuu while imagining Nami's expression in front of a huge rock suddenly transformed into gold and deciding to exploit her to create entire mountains of it, "But Luffy would say it's no fun…!"

"Quite true…" agreed in turn Ace, laughing inwardly at imagining Luffy's sulking expression when he was finding something boring, "But that could be our little secret…"

"Hum… But I also find it more fun to extract it rather than creating it by magic…" countered Fuu with a poised smile.

"More fun but more tiring…" mocked Ace with one of his usual crooked smile, "Come on, just admit it… that you'd rather be up there enjoying a nice lunch than sweating on something like that…"

"What?" snapped Fuu, deeply vexed to be put in the category of girls not wanting to dirty their hands, "Of course not! It's…"

But an unfortunate grumbling noise betrayed Fuu, making her blush with shame at realizing that, now that her claustrophobia crisis had ended, the knot in her stomach had loosened, leaving the latter rumble with indignation for not having received much food for the last 48 hours.

_Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! How embarrassing! _She thought as she avoided contact with Ace's eyes, very embarrassed of having had her stomach make such a loud noise.

"Hum hum…" smirked Ace while arching an eyebrow, "Seems like someone is agreeing with me… you've lost!"

"I haven't lost at all!" retorted Fuu by reflex, "It's really nothing, and…"

But another unfortunate grumbling noise interrupted the conversation once more… but this time, the one to blush and avert his eyes was a certain Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet.

"Ooh…?" Fuu said with a small smirk while trying to imitate Ace's teasing tone, "Seems like we're on equal terms, now… Or could it be that you're the one getting tired?"

"Hey! Who do you think you're talking to?" countered Ace with a playfully arrogant tone.

_To someone the whole world would have trouble imagining earning honestly his life as a gold miner, hihihi… _thought Fuu while laughing to herself at imagining the expression of the Marines if they were to learn that the all-so-wanted Gol D. Ace was using his Devil Fruit power to extract gold in all honesty, even having a registration number for that.

Ace gazed at the giggling face of his interlocutor with a smile, and was obliged to recognize that he was enjoying seeing her smiles uncommonly more than her frightened and weakened state, despite the former only bringing fights and debates while the latter was bringing her in his arms.

Ace's lips stretched in a soft cunning smile.

"But if you insist, it's true I might get tired, in the end…" added he with a jesting tone, "So it might be worth asking for compensation, right…?"

Fuu carefully raised her eyes towards him, her both hands still busy with her revolver and the gold stream.

"A compensation, huh…?" paused she with an amused smile, "I don't think Nami will let you ask for more than your share of the gold… and our shares are usually quite unequal already, hihihi…"

"Oh, I wasn't thinking about her…" chuckled Ace with a teasing expression, "Since you were the one to decide to work instead of using the easy magical way for extracting the gold, it's only fair to ask YOU for compensation."

"You want MY share of the gold, then…?" tilted Fuu, perplexed by the request but not really attached to money – in this world even more than on the real one.

"Heehee, I wasn't thinking about the gold!" mocked Ace while staring deep into his interlocutor's eyes, "I'll be satisfied with a kiss as compensation…"

"Wh… WHAT?" nearly chocked Fuu, before averting her eyes in panic to focus back on the trickle of gold which was dangerously missing the icy bubble because she had nearly dropped the silver pistol in shock at hearing Ace's declaration.

"A kiss…" repeated Ace slowly, without averting his eyes from his interlocutor.

"I… I heard… b… but…" exclaimed Fuu, extremely embarrassed and feeling her cheeks burn furiously, and not because of the surrounding enflamed rocks.

"I think it's quite fair, considering the situation…" taunted Ace while moving his face closer to hers.

"Th… it's… that's…" mumbled Fuu, searching for an answer but her mind had unfortunately blanked out when her eyes had met the obsidian pupils gazing intensely at her.

Fuu felt that she was gradually losing control over what she was doing as Ace's face was slowly coming closer to hers. She felt her cheeks burn intensely at each centimetre Ace's lips were progressing towards hers… and she felt hers eyes stare deep into his, as if hoping to find an answer in them.

Ace was gazing at the big troubled amber eyes which were apparently awaiting their fate without running away from it, unlike what she had done at the Saloon. He couldn't help but want and see for himself if it meant she was giving him her consent – even though he had only planned at first to tease her a little as a payback for the embarrassing misunderstanding from before.

BAM. A soft thumbing sound soon followed by a strong burnt-gum smell instantly broke the spell, and both interlocutors lowered their heads precipitately.

They both panicked at seeing that Fuu's embarrassment had – fairly – affected her hands too, and therefore had made her lost the next icy bubble, leaving the melted gold free to fall in the black gum bucket used as a recipient just below. And the aforementioned bucket had not appreciated receiving metal in fusion and had – quite fairly – complained by emitting a strong smell of burning.

"Waaaahhh!" panicked Fuu while actively trying to catch back the still-flowing gold trickle in a new bubble of icy wind, while from the other hand she was sending some water bubbles to drown the burnt part of the bucket.

And when she finally brought back her eyes on her interlocutor, it was only to blush back forcefully at remembering the situation they were in, a couple of seconds before.

"I can wait for the work to be finished, or course…" specified Ace with one of his usual provocative smiles, "For my healing kiss, that is…"

TILT. Fuu's eyes widened at hearing the last part of the comment, and her face crumbled as she started cursing herself for having imagined that Ace was talking about a real kiss while – of course – one of the kisses she was using as a vector for her healing 'spells' was way more rational a claim and way more natural a compensation when a task was exhausting.

"S… sure!" Fuu finally managed to answer but avoided looking straight at her interlocutor, "I'll heal you if you're getting tired…"

"That sounds comforting…" mocked Ace while forcing a smile, although he was sulking in his mind for having been forced to change the nature of his claim due to the situation having escaped him and his pride not allowing him to admit his failure.

While Fuu was focusing all her attention back on the wind bubbles of her revolver, trying her best to forget about the embarrassing episode, Ace also focused back on his work, sighing to himself at the thought that he just missed the opportunity to clear up some things – things that had been stirred up by the comments of a black-haired archaeologist several hours before, and had been comforted a bit by the absence of denial of an hazelnut-haired girl some minutes ago.

**

* * *

A COUPLE OF HOURS AFTERWARDS**

The extraction of the gold had kept on at a steady rhythm, and Robin's duplicated arms – wearing Sanji's kitchen gloves to protect her skin from the scorching heat of the rock – had brought back to the surface the fruit of Fuu and Ace's hard work.

At first, the fusing over the newly-extracted gold and the eerie shape of the nuggets had caused the same commotion as usual, and the two workers were still laughing up their sleeves at hearing the echo of the chaotic ruckus going on six metres above them. But of course, even Nami's enthusiasm had ended up quieting down with time, and at the fifteenth bucket, no more exclamations could be heard, even if faint rumbling noises were attesting that the Mugiwaras had found some other noisy occupation.

Time had also eased the atmosphere between Fuu and Ace, and the embarrassing episode had for long been forgotten as they were working together to finish to extract the gold.

And finally, the gold steam run dry, leaving Fuu with a half-made ball of gold floating in one of her icy bubbles.

"Finished!" exclaimed she with a relieved and happy expression.

Ace slowly put off his hands from the rocky wall and stretched his shoulders, the muscles of his back starting to get sore for having stayed so long in one position.

And while Robin's arms were lifting up the last bucket and its content out of the shaft, the two amateur-prospectors wiped away beads of perspiration from their forehead with their arms, completely in a sweat. Because even if one was a Fire Logia and the other one had a Fire Resistance 'spell' on, it had only avoided them to end up as roasted meat cooked on the stone and hadn't spared them to feel the impact of the surrounding heat.

"Phew… I think I'll ask Nami to make rain with her ClimaTact…" sighed Fuu while remembering how useful the trick that Nami had learnt on Weatheria was useful for that kind of situation, "I really need to shower…"

"Hum, I agree… You're all sticky!" mocked Ace while letting his hand run on the girl's neck, peeling off a hair-curl soaked in sweat from it.

"Hey!" blushed furiously Fuu while catching back her hair-lock from Ace's hand with a sulking expression.

"Self-conscious…?" teased Ace while crooking a smile to his flushed interlocutor.

"Of course…" mumbled Fuu, deeply vexed and ashamed at the same time, "I know I'm not presentable right now… so no need to rub salt on it…!"

"Presentable…?" repeated Ace with a teasing smile, "Hum… I rather find it quite… alluring...!"

DOKI. At hearing the last word, Fuu had blushed two more shades of red and had raised her fist to knock quiet the _damned playboy_ without any tact who was still teasing her with that kind of comment.

But Ace easily intercepted the hit in a laugh, capturing her wrist in his hand to move her fist away and pull her towards him.

"Really tempting…!" murmured he near Fuu's ears, as if speaking to himself, before asking in a louder and enthusiastic voice, "What about the kiss?"

TILT. The sudden closeness and the remembrance of the 'compensation topic' made Fuu blush even more – which was apparently still possible – and she struggled harder.

"Ugh!" grumbled she while seeing that her efforts were fruitless, "You… you don't seem tired enough to need it!"

"Cheater…" provoked Ace in an _annoying_ crooked smile, "You had promised to heal me afterwards, since it was a tiresome job!"

But despite all Ace's claims on his exhaustion state, his strength wasn't diminished at all comparing to normal, and he had effortlessly pulled Fuu onto him, easily countering her struggle. And Fuu could only shake her wrists fruitlessly in Ace's hands, desperate to leave his arms and to run away from the contact of his built-up bust dripping with sweat, by fear of letting something embarrassing happen again if the closeness, the warmth of his body and the unbearable appeal of his seductive smirk were making her lose control of the situation again.

"Please…" asked Ace with one of his most provocative and self-confident grins, "You had promised…"

_Ugh! He'll definitely pay for that… this damned playboy! _inwardly screamed Fuu, bright scarlet but knowing she had no escape route, since she was the type of people who never came back on their promises.

And while trying not to let her eyes meet his, she closed her eyelids to focus on gathering her Devil Fruit power and inwardly whispered the incantation of her healing 'spell', hoping to get rid of her embarrassing actual predicament as soon as possible. When she felt her lips shining with the customary silver glow, she slowly opened her eyes again.

The first thing she then saw was a pair of obsidian eyes intensely and straight-forwardly gazing at her, while their owner had softly let go of her wrist to tenderly seize her face in his hands.

_Wh…? Ace…?_

But Fuu only felt her gaze drowning in Ace's eyes, as his face was getting gradually closer and a mysterious force was irremediably attracting her towards him.

She felt herself silently, obediently following this force, soon feeling Ace's breathe onto her silver lips, when suddenly:

"ACE! FUU!" shouted the easily recognisable voice of Luffy from above, "Nami said we can have a party tonight! A banquet, a banquet, YEEPEE!"

FLASH. Fuu's silver magical aura instantly imploded in a burst of light, breaking the spell – literally and figuratively – and the hypnotic face-to-face between the two pirates.

Millimetres turned into centimetres as Ace was slowly pulling back, slowly letting go of Fuu's face to turn towards the spoilsport who was dancing near the edge of the well, too happy by the piece of news to see the dark glare his brother was sending him.

"Coming…" sighed Ace while swiftly jumping up to land near his brother, giving him a punch on the head along the way to teach him to stop having such an extraordinary _bad_ timing.

And while Fuu was trying to breathe normally again, at the same time relieved, disappointed and ashamed – since she hadn't managed to elucidate which feeling was the strongest – Robin's hand softly poked her on the shoulder to show her the ladder of arms the archaeologist had created to help her friend getting out of the shaft.

"Thanks, Robin…" Fuu muttered with an outburst of pride at thinking that despite him having played with her like that, Ace had still abandoned her down here to go and fight with his brother.

And when she had finally managed to climb up again to the surface of the mine gallery – vexation and pride having fortunately kept her mind busy enough to avoid another claustrophobia crisis – another problem was awaiting her.

"_**Just whistle while you work,  
And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place,  
So hum a merry tune,  
It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace" **_were singing the Mugiwaras while tidying and leaving camp.

But the most astonishing part was that they weren't the only ones cleaning around and putting back their things in the bags: a small regiment of forest animal whose origins were unknown were also there and helping them out.

Fuu's mouth gasped in disbelief at seeing Nami working with some bluebirds to put the gold into bags and tying up them, Sanji shouting at a some fawns and squirrels not to lick the dishes to make them clean but bring him water instead, Usopp suggesting some rabbits to hide the recently-gathered dust in the mouse hole in the gallery wall – not even wondering why they would bother dusting the ground of a mountain gallery nor what a mouse hole could be doing in the wall of such gallery.

"_**Just whistle while you work,  
Put on that grin and start right in to whistle loud and long,  
Just hum a merry tune,  
Just do your best and take a rest and sing yourself a song" **_kept on singing the Mugiwaras, once in a while accompanied by the chirping of the birds.

"Oh my…" could only say Fuu of utter bewilderment.

_Okay… We REALLY need to solve this paradox… QUICKLY!_


End file.
